©  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


THE  LIFE  OF 

THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 


BY 


WM.  DRAPER  LEWIS,  PH.D. 

FORMER  DEAN   OF    THE   LAW    SCHOOL 
OK  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

WILLIAM  HOWARD  TAFT 

EX-PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


ILLUSTRATED 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright  1919 
BT  WM.  ELLIS  SCULL 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION    .    .    .    .    .....    .    .  vii 

By  William  Howard  Taft 

I.     THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN     .    .    ,    .    .    .  17 

II.     CHILDHOOD      .    .    .    ,    .    ...    .    .    .    .  25 

III.     SCHOOL  AND  COLLEGE 40 

^-  V IV.     FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS    ...    *  52 

V.     ELKHORN  RANCH ,    .  68 

VI.     ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  CIVIL  SERVICE   .  84 

VII.     POLICE  COMMISSIONER 98 

^     VIII.     ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY  .  119 

IX.     COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS     .    .  134 

~~V      X.     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK      .    .    ...  148 

—  v/  XI.     FROM  GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT    ...  163 

p— r      XII.     ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WTHITE  HOUSE    .    .  175 

XIII.     THE  FIRST  TERM      194 

v  XIV.     THE  PANAMA  CANAL 216 

XV.     THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904      229 

XVI.     PRESIDENT  IN  His  OWN  RIGHT     .    .    .  238 

^    XVII.     WTHAT  HE  DID  FOR  THE  NAVY     .    .    .  259 

XVIII.     BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR      274 

XIX.     CONSERVATION  OF  NATURAL  RESOURCES  288 

XX.     IN  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 301 

(v) 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


PAGB 


XXI.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  PROGRESSIVE 

MOVEMENT * 319 

XXII.     THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE  336 

XXIII.  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION  IN 

1912      .    . 346 

XXIV.  THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY.    .    .  368 
XXV.     ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST     ....  384 

XXVI.     THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT 401 

XXVII.     POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912.    ...  415 

XXVIII.     BOOKS  AND  SPEECHES 432 

XXIX.     LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE  HILL 447 

XXX.    THE  WORLD   WAR — His  LAST  GREAT 

SERVICE 459 

CHRONOLOGY 

INDEX  . 


INTRODUCTION 
BY  WILLIAM  HOWARD  TAFT 

DR.  LEWIS  has  asked  me  to  write  this  introduction 
to  his  narrative  history  of  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Dr.  Lewis  is  a  teacher  and  publicist,  of  wide 
experience  and  intimate  knowledge  of  his  subject,  a  man 
of  high  character  and  discrimination,  with  whom  this 
history  is  a  labor  of  love.  He  will  write  an  impartial, 
non-partisan  history  of  this  great  man,  whom  he  knew 
personally,  and  with  whose  views  he  deeply  sympathized. 
That  he  shall  entirely  escape  the  influence  of  his  great 
personal  affection  for  Theodore  Roosevelt  in  the  history 
he  writes  is  not  to  be  expected.  Indeed  no  history  written 
so  soon  after  the  passing  of  a  great  historical  figure 
like  Roosevelt,  while  the  magnetic  influence  of  his  per 
sonality  is  strong,  could  fail  to  show  the  effect  of  that 
influence.  But  Dr.  Lewis  is  able  with  judicial  poise  to 
tell  the  events  of  Roosevelt's  life  and  give  to  the  world 
the  benefit  of  his  personal  observation.  He  will  thus 
explain  much,  and  greatly  aid  the  future  historian, 
who,  after  fifty  years,  shall  write  a  life  like  that  of  Lord 
Charnwood's  "Life  of  Lincoln." 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  scholar  and  a  man  of  wide 
and  exact  knowledge  in  many  fields.  He  was  a  scholar 
in  the  true  sense,  but  no  one  ever  quite  classed  him  as 
such,  because  he  made  his  scholarship  a  constant  instru 
ment  in  his  practical  activities.  He  was  a  thinker  and 
used  his  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  learning  to  regulate 
that  thinking.  His  marvelous  power  of  quick  acqui- 

(vii) 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

sition  was  only  a  tool  in  solving  practical  problems, 
political  and  social.  More  than  any  one  I  know,  he 
believed  in  results.  More  than  any  one  I  know,  he 
demanded  success  in  effort  by  those  who  were  associated 
with  him  in  a  common  cause.  He  was  the  advocate 
and  exemplar  of  continuous  struggle  toward  a  definite 
object  and  a  strenuous  life.  To  say,  therefore,  that 
he  was  a  scholar  in  politics  is  misleading,  because  that 
phrase  suggests  one  in  whose  life  the  scholarly  ambition 
is  the  controlling  motive.  To  such  a  one,  politics  and 
statesmanship  are  a  diversion  or  at  least  subordinate. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  statesman  and  he  subor 
dinated  all  his  tastes  and  all  his  abilities  and  all  his  know 
ledge  and  his  facility  in  using  that  knowledge  to  the 
achievement  of  political  and  social  progress. 

He  was  not  a  lawyer,  though  he  had  been  admitted 
to  the  Bar.  He  believed  in  law  and  order.  Indeed  that 
was  one  of  the  primary  principles  of  his  faith.  But 
he  was  impatient  at  the  delays  in  the  administration 
of  justice.  He  was  impatient  at  judicial  judgments 
when  he  considered  them  wrong  and  destructive  to 
progress.  He  was,  therefore,  without  the  most  sensitive 
consideration  of  the  methods  by  which  that  progress 
might  be  safely  attained.  Precedents  and  their  influence 
which  are  essential  in  a  judicial  system,  to  secure 
uniformity  in  the  application  of  the  law,  did  not  greatly 
appeal  to  him. 

The  suddenness  with  which,  four  years  after  grad 
uation,  he  sprang  into  national  prominence  in  the  con 
vention  which  nominated  Blaine  in  1884,  and  the  vigor 
and  effectiveness  that  he  then  displayed  was  Minerva- 
like,  as  of  one  who  sprang  full  armed  from  the  brain 
of  Jove.  It  was  a  prominence  like  that  of  the  younger 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

Pitt  who  had  prepared  himself  for  immediate  respon 
sibility  as  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  upon  his  graduation. 
Like  all  men,  Roosevelt  grew  and  profited  by  actual 
experience;  but  one  finds  in  his  early  political  career 
all  the  characteristics  which  so  conspicuously  marked 
him  to  the  day  of  his  death.  His  humor,  his  courage,  L 
his  love  of  a  controversy,  his  love  of,  and  insistence 
upon  definite  practical  results,  his  impatience  at  what 
Senator  Lodge  has  felicitously  called  the  sacrifice  of 
the  good  for  the  better,  were  all  with  him  in  the  New 
York  Assembly  and  in  his  preliminary  convention 
support  of  Edmonds  against  Elaine  and  his  subsequent 
earnest  advocacy  of  Elaine  as  the  nominee  of  the 
party.  His  adherence  to  party  as  the  best  means  of 
accomplishing  reform,  without  a  slavish  submission 
to  the  authority  of  those  in  temporary  control, 
was  as  clear  when  he  was  Civil  Service  Commis 
sioner  and  Police  Commissioner  as  in  the  later  years 
of  his  life. 

When  one  seeks  to  detail  the  important  accom 
plishment  of  Roosevelt's  life  in  the  definite  objects 
attained,  the  roll  is  a  very  long  and  most  important 
one;  yet  one  hesitates  to  attempt  it  lest  it  minimize 
his  career.  His  greatest  achievement  was  in  his  influence 
upon  the  ideals  of  his  country,  and  his  stimulation 
of  the  plain  people  to  appreciate  them.  We  may! 
note  the  detail  of  what  he  accomplished  by  way  of 
illustration  therefore  rather  than  the  summation  of 
the  total. 

One  of  the  great  evils  of  American  political  life  in 
the  days  of  Lincoln  and  of  Grant  was  the  use  of  public 
patronage  down  to  the  lowest  tidewater  for  political 
purposes.  Dorman  B.  Eaton  and  Governor  Jenckes, 


x  INTRODUCTION 

of  Rhode  Island,  inaugurated  a  movement  in  which 
Senator  George  Pendleton  afterwards  took  part,  to 
introduce  the  competitive  merit  principle  into  the  civil 
service.  President  Grant  lent  his  aid  to  the  beginning 
of  the  reform,  though  the  actual  practice  in  his  admin 
istration  did  not  represent  great  advance.  George 
William  Curtis  was  the  protagonist  of  civil  service 
reform,  and  the  controversies  between  him  and  Senator 
Conkling,  who  was  reactionary  in  this  regard,  are  part 
of  its  history.  Civil  service  reform  is  not  only  dependent 
on  enabling  legislation,  but  it  is  still  more  dependent 
for  real  results  upon  actual  executive  practice.  The 
act  of  1883  gave  sufficient  power  to  the  President  to 
take  tens  of  thousands  of  employees  of  the  government 
out  of  politics  and  to  prevent  their  being  used  as  pawns 
in  the  political  game.  It  left  it  to  the  President  to  make 
very  comprehensive  regulations  and  to  include  within 
the  classified  service  whose  limits  he  defined,  the  great 
bulk  of  civil  servants.  Congress  always  was,  and  even 
now  is,  a  hypocrite  in  respect  to  the  civil  servants.  The 
members  who  are  of  the  right  political  faith  hate  to 
part  with  the  prestige  which,  if  unrestricted  under  our 
system,  they  are  certain  to  enjoy.  When,  therefore,  the 
bureau  of  the  Civil  Service  was  established,  it  was  one 
of  the  constant  congressional  comedies  that  the  appro 
priations  needed  for  its  maintenance  and  the  bureaus 
under  its  jurisdiction  should  be  voted  down  in  the  com 
mittee  of  the  whole  in  which  no  record  was  made  of 
who  voted  against  the  appropriation  and  then  be  restored 
to  the  appropriation  bill  by  a  vote  in  the  House  in 
which  the  ayes  and  nays  were  recorded.  It  was  at  a 
time  when  this  comedy  was  going  on  that  Theodore 
Roosevelt  was  appointed  by  Grover  Cleveland  to  the 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

Civil  Service  Commission,  and  he  entered  upon  his 
duties  with  eagerness  and  enthusiasm  and  a  very  prac 
tical  knowledge  of  the  evils  sought  to  be  remedied  by 
the  law.  He  had  had  an  experience  in  ward  and  district 
politics  and  an  understanding  of  politicians  that  fitted 
him  for  the  fight  he  was  to  make.  He  was  aggressive. 
He  bothered  the  successive  occupants  of  the  White 
House  with  his  request  for  stiffer  regulations.  He  was 
outspoken  in  his  contempt  for  the  opposition  which 
was  generated  only  by  a  desire  for  political  pap.  He 
allowed  no  attack  upon  the  system  or  its  administration 
to  go  without  a  prompt,  accurate  and  defiant  answer. 
The  sneers  of  Congressmen  were  supported  by  unfounded 
stories  of  the  absurdity  of  examination  questions  put 
to  applicants  obviously  not  germane  to  the  duties  of 
the  office  sought.  Roosevelt  traced  every  one  of  these 
stories  and  refuted  them  all.  It  brought  him  into  news 
paper  disputes  with  General  Grosvenor  and  other  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  whose  accuracy  he  questioned  and 
whose  blunders  or  misstatements  he  demonstrated. 
He  came  near  having  a  personal  encounter  with  Frank 
Hatton,  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Washington 
Post,  a  former  Assistant  Postmaster  General,  who 
abused  him  with  a  virulence  that  Roosevelt  seemed 
really  to  enjoy,  because  of  the  prominence  it  gave  to 
the  cause  he  was  fighting.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  in  stimulating  executive  responsibility  for  the 
progress  of  civil  service  reform  and  in  securing  progres 
sive  executive  practice,  the  country  is  indebted  to  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt  more  than  to  any  other  man.  No  one 
pointed  with  more  humor  and  telling  denunciation  to 
the  injustice  and  outrage  of  using  government  office 
for  personal  and  party  political  advancement  than  did 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

he,  and  no  one  gave  more  practical  proof  of  the  possi 
bilities  of  reform  in  this  matter. 

His  work  as  Police  Commissioner  gave  him  an  oppor 
tunity  to  approach  the  social  side  of  New  York  City 
from  the  position  of  authority  and  responsibility  and 
to  gratify  his  interest  in  the  lowly  and  the  poor  and  the 
suffering  which  he  had  inherited  from  his  father,  and 
which  stimulated  him  to  constant  thought  as  to  methods 
for  their  practical  relief. 

Roosevelt  was  a  supporter  of  Thomas  B.  Reed  for 
the  Presidency,  when  Mr.  Reed  and  Mr.  McKinley 
were  rivals  for  the  nomination.  Roosevelt  and  Reed 
were  great  friends.  They  were  different.  Reed  was  a 
brilliant  epigrammist,  a  man  of  great  personality,  a 
master  of  trenchant  speech,  a  conservative  and  not  a 
reformer  of  the  enthusiastic  type,  a  believer  in  good 
government,  a  strong  protectionist,  a  partisan  Repub 
lican.  I  have  said  Mr.  Reed  was  not  a  reformer.  This 
does  him  injustice.  He  was  a  fine  parliamentarian  and 
he  saw  the  absurdity  of  a  procedure  that  enabled  the 
minority  in  a  great  legislative  body  like  that  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  to  block  the  action  of  the 
majority  long  after  there  had  been  given  a  full  opportunity 
for  debate.  By  his  personal  rulings  and  against  riotous 
opposition  and  bitter  abuse,  he  ended  forever  the  ridic 
ulous  anomaly  that  a  man  might  be  present  in  the  House 
and  yet  prevent  his  being  counted  as  part  of  a  quorum 
by  refusing  to  answer  to  his  name.  Roosevelt  interested 
Reed  and  Reed  interested  Roosevelt,  and  they  were 
great  friends.  Each  poked  fun  at  the  other,  and  the 
other  enjoyed  it.  So  Roosevelt  supported  Reed.  Reed 
was  beaten.  There  were  those  who  were  friends  of 
McKinley,  Reed  and  Roosevelt.  They  thought  that 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

it  might  bring  two  great  Republican  leaders  closer 
together  if  McKinley  should  appoint  Roosevelt  to  be 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  When  the  matter 
was  pressed  upon  McKinley,  he  hesitated  and  replied, 
"But  Roosevelt  is  always  in  such  a  state  of  mind," 
but  he  nevertheless  appointed  him.  This  remark,  if 
properly  understood,  reveals  the  temperamental  differ 
ence  between  McKinley  and  his  successor.  Roosevelt's 
interest  in  the  Navy  had  begun  with  his  college  days 
when  he  began  the  preparation  of  the  Naval  History 
of  the  War  of  1812,  a  book  which  Senator  Lodge,  no 
mean  authority,  declares  to  be  the  best  and  most  reliable 
history  extant  of  that  war  upon  the  sea.  Roosevelt's 
chief  was  Secretary  Long.  Secretary  Long  was  a  Unitarian 
of  Quaker  proclivities  and  not  urgent  in  respect  to  pre 
paration  for  a  war.  The  differences  between  them 
because  of  this  difference  in  attitude  toward  naval 
preparation,  were  numerous.  Roosevelt  did,  however, 
succeed  in  putting  on  the  Pacific  station  a  squad 
ron  of  war  ships  under  the  command  of  a  real  Com 
mander  like  Dewey,  with  ammunition  enough  to  fight 
a  battle. 

The  Spanish  War  Roosevelt  saw  coming  before 
either  his  Secretary  or  his  President.  As  soon  as  it 
came,  he  determined  to  be  in  it.  There  were  many 
reasons  of  a  personal  and  family  character  that  would 
have  held  other  men,  but  not  Roosevelt.  It  was  charac- 
terestic  of  him  that  he  got  to  Cuba,  that  he  was  in  a 
fight  the  day  he  landed,  and  that  he  was  in  all  the  land 
fights  there  were  in  that  war.  He  had  a  real  soldier's 
ambition,  but  he  was  never  able  to  gratify  it.  No  death 
would  have  satisfied  him  as  well  as  death  in  battle. 
He  longed  for  such  an  epic  ending  of  his  career. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

As  Governor  of  New  York  he  practiced  the  principles 
of  his  life  with  reference  to  progress  and  politics.  He 
found  Platt  entrenched  in  power.  He  needed  Platt  to 
accomplish  his  progressive  purposes  as  Governor  of 
New  York,  and  he  dealt  with  Platt  as  the  only  way 
by  which  he  could  achieve  progress.  He  was  attacked 
and  bitterly  criticised  by  the  professional  reformers 
and  the  Mugwump  and  Democratic  press,  but  he  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions  and  he  followed 
them. 

Much  happened  in  the  seven  and  one-half  years  of 
his  Presidency,  but  in  such  an  introduction  as  this, 
there  is  no  space  for  reference  except  to  two  or  three 
great  achievements.  If  the  name  of  the  Panama  Canal 
could  be  changed,  it  should  be  called  the  "Theodore 
Roosevelt  Can^tl."  It  is  more  due  to  him  than  to  any 
other  man,  and  without  him  it  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  it  would  now  be  begun.  The  hoggish  and  unjust 
attitude  of  Colombia  toward  the  enterprise  as  well  as 
toward  Panama,  whose  people  favored  giving  the  United 
States  an  opportunity  to  build  and  own  it,  aroused  the 
deep  indignation  of  Roosevelt.  He  knew  there  was  no 
equity  in  the  position  of  Colombia.  He  welcomed  the 
possibility  of  a  revolution  which  should  separate  Panama 
from  Colombia.  He  thought  such  a  revolution  entirely 
justified,  and  so  must  everyone  from  the  standpoint 
of  equity  and  world  progress.  He  did  not  promise  aid 
to  the  revolutionists  in  advance  of  their  declaration 
and  rebellion.  He  did  not  scheme  with  any  one  to  bring 
it  about,  but  it  was  not  difficult  to  infer  in  advance 
that  a  separation  of  that  kind  without  his  assistance 
was  something  of  which  he  was  likely  to  take  advantage. 

When  the  revolution  came  on,  he  sent  one  order  that 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

should  not  have  been  sent.  He  directed  the  U.  S.  Naval 
Officer  in  charge  at  Colon  not  to  allow  Colombia  to  send 
forces  to  attack  within  fifty  miles  of  the  Panama  Rail 
road,  lest  it  should  injure  American  interests.  The 
order  was  never  executed.  The  Colombian  troops  did 
reach  the  railroad  and  the  order  had  no  real  effect  upon 
events.  But  it  served  to  make  a  basis  for  the  charge 
upon  the  administration  that  the  United  States  actually 
intervened  to  make  the  revolution  a  success.  The 
truth  is  the  bond  between  Panama  and  Colombia  was 
very  loose.  Colombia  had  not  the  power  to  prevent 
the  separation,  and  what  happened  was  a  good  thing 
to  happen.  Roosevelt's  recognition  of  the  Republic  of 
Panama  within  a  week  after  the  establishment  of  the 
government  there  was  very  prompt.  The  signing  of 
the  treaty  guaranteeing  the  integrity  of  Panama  was 
equally  expeditious.  While  these  acts  pressed  upon 
the  line  of  international  right,  in  the  light  of  all  the 
circumstances  history  will  sustain  Roosevelt  in  what 
he  did.  It  enabled  us  to  make  a  treaty  with  a  nation 
which  owned  the  territory  where  the  canal  had  to  be 
built,  and  which  was  anxious  to  have  it  built  and  was 
anxious  to  have  the  United  States  build  it.  Therefore, 
it  was  glad  to  give  the  United  States  the  complete  con 
trol  over  the  Canal  Zone.  It  was  necessary  for  the 
United  States  to  have  this  control,  in  order  to  succeed 
in  the  great  work  of  construction.  Without  saying 
that  the  French  plan  under  De  Lesseps  could  ever 
have  been  carried  through  either  in  its  original  form 
or  as  amended,  one  of  the  great  reasons  for  its  failure 
was  the  fact  that  Colombia  retained  complete  police 
control  over  the  territory  in  which  the  canal  was 
built.  The  governmental  obstructions  and  corruption 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

were  some  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  French 
success.  These  the  Hay-Varilla  'treaty  completely 
removed,  and  the  police  control  and  dominion  that  the 
United  States  acquired  not  only  over  the  Canal  Zone 
itself  but  for  health  purposes  over  the  cities  of  Colon 
and  Panama,  made  it  possible  to  take  the  first  indis 
pensable  step  in  building  the  canal,  to  wit,  to  make 
the  Isthmus  safe  for  the  health  of  40,000  people  who 
had  to  be  imported  to  do  the  building.  Under  the  Colom 
bian  Hay-Herran  treaty,  no  such  control  of  the  Zone 
was  given  to  the  United  States.  As  was  to  be  expected, 
after  Congress  gave  the  President  the  authority  to 
build  the  canal,  Roosevelt  pressed  its  construction  with 
one  civil  engineer  and  another,  and  finally  with  an 
army  engineer,  to  a  point  where  completion  within  a 
few  years  was  a  certainty.  It  was  finished  before  the 
great  war.  Discussion  as  to  who  actually  built  the 
canal  occasionally  crops  out.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
man  who  really  gave  substance  to  the  world  dream  of 
four  hundred  years  and  made  the  canal,  was  Theodore 
Roosevelt.  The  man  whose  executive  genius  did  the 
detailed  work  was  George  W.  Goethals. 

President  Roosevelt  was  in  full  sympathy  with  his 
predecessors  in  the  Philippine  policy,  and  he  held  the 
anti-imperialists  in  the  utmost  scorn.  The  argument 
that  the  United  States  was  not  a  full  sovereign  nation, 
able  to  hold  and  administer  territory  in  any  part  of  the 
world  to  which  it  had  acquired  legal  title  and  possession, 
was  entirely  repugnant  to  him,  and  he  spoke  in  con 
demnation  of  such  views  with  his  accustomed  vigor. 
Elihu  Root,  who  had  continued  as  Secretary  of  War 
from  the  McKinley  Cabinet,  was  a  man  in  whose  counsel 
and  ability  he  had  the  utmost  reliance,  and  the  change 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

from  McKinley  to  Roosevelt  made  not  the  slightest 
interruption  in  the  important  work  of  bringing  the 
Philippine  Islands  into  order  and  preparing  their  people 
for  autonomy. 

The  great  domestic  policy  of  his  second  term  was 
typified  in  the  railroad  rate  bill.  This  gave  to  the  Inter 
state  Commerce  Commission  the  right  to  fix  rates. 
Theretofore  under  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
it  had  only  the  right  to  declare  rates  fixed  by  the  rail 
way  to  be  unreasonable.  Around  this  rather  slight 
step  forward  in  government  control  raged  the  great 
contest  of  his  administration.  It  brought  him  into  open 
and  acute  issue  with  the  great  railroad  interests  of  the 
country,  and  it  developed  him  into  a  knight  with  shining 
armor  against  evils  of  corporate  control  in  politics.  He 
had  shown  a  disposition  to  throw  down  the  gauntlet 
to  the  great  corporate  organizations  of  the  country 
in  his  first  term,  but  upon  the  rate  bill  the  issue  was 
clearly  drawn.  All  the  corporate  abuses,  including  the 
overissue  of  stock  and  high  finance,  received  his  con 
demnation.  He  sought  to  stir  the  nation  to  the  neces 
sity  for  establishing  a  higher  business  standard  than 
that  which  these  corporate  abuses  indicated.  This 
standard  applied  in  the  various  directions  which  his 
universal  interest  suggested,  created  a  body  of  doctrines 
that  were  called  the  Roosevelt  Policies,  and  were  tersely 
described  in  the  homely  phrase  he  used,  as  "Giving 
every  man  a  square  deal."  Agitation  over  the  power  of 
wealth  organized  into  corporations  which  in  open  and 
subterranean  methods  sought  to  control  political  con 
ventions  and  legislative  bodies  did  not  begin  with  him. 
But  certainly  Theodore  Roosevelt  is  entitled  to  the 
credit  of  assuming  the  leadership  of  this  movement 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

and  giving  it  effectiveness.  The  public  under  his  prop 
aganda  became  sensitive  in  the  highest  degree  to  cor 
porate  evils  and  entered  upon  radical  measures  which 
often  went  much  too  far  and  worked  injustice.  But 
such  a  result  is  to  be  expected  where  the  indignation 
of  the  public  is  justly  aroused.  The  unwise  excesses  of 
popular  action  are  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  those  who 
were  guilty  of  creating  the  evil  which  aroused  the 
people. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  not  a  radical  man.  He 
believed  in  law  and  order.  He  believed  in  the  right 
of  property.  He  had  sound  economic  views,  but  injustice 
aroused  him  and  led  him  into  denunciation  that  often 
was  mistaken  for  a  radicalism  that  he  really  did  not 
entertain.  His  radicalism,  such  as  he  had,  took  the  form 
of  undervaluing  the  necessity  for  orderly  procedure  and 
of  seeking  a  short  cut  to  the  reform  of  evil.  He  did 
not  fully  realize  the  ultimate  results  of  such  short 
cuts. 

Roosevelt  was  a  friend  of  labor  and  believed  in  its 
organization  and  recognition.  The  wage  earners  knew 
that  he  sympathized  with  them.  There  was  no  doubt 
that  he  did.  His  earnest  desire  to  better  their  con 
dition  was  manifest  in  his  speech  and  proposed 
measures.  But  he  resented  deeply  abuses  to  which 
the  power  of  organization  sometimes  tempted  trades 
unions,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  such  abuses. 
The  criminal  conspiracies  of  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners  and  the  undesirable  character  of  such  citizenship 
as  that  of  Moyer  and  Haywood  he  emphasized  in  speeches 
and  in  letters.  He  had  no  hesitation  in  sending  a  member 
of  his  Cabinet  to  fight  the  Western  Federation  of  Labor 
in  their  attempt  to  defeat  Governor  Gooding  of  Idaho 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

for  re-election  because  he  had  issued  the  requisition 
papers  which  brought  Moyer  and  Haywood  from  Col 
orado  to  Idaho  to  be  tried  for  the  crime  of  killing  Governor 
Steunenberg  of  that  state. 

He  used  the  Presidency  as  a  pulpit  from  which  to 
preach  on  many  different  subjects  not  within  federal 
jurisdiction,  but  his  interests  were  so  universal  and  his 
knowledge  of  conditions  so  correct  that  he  was  able  to 
be  helpful  in  teaching  lessons  that  the  people  gratefully 
read  and  approved.  A  cartoon  hung  in  his  room  in  the 
White  House  during  his  term,  in  which  an  old  farmer 
with  a  pipe  was  seated  in  front  of  a  fire  reading  a 
long  executive  message  of  the  President,  and  underneath 
was  the  legend,  "His  favorite  author."  This  cartoon 
contained  the  kernel  of  truth  as  to  the  attitude  of  the 
plain  people  in  the  country  toward  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
ideals.  At  the  instance  of  Gifford  Pinchot,  Roosevelt 
became  very  much  interested  in  respect  to  the  conser 
vation  of  timber  lands  and  of  mineral  resources  of 
the  United  States  from  despoilers  and  fraudulent  con 
spiracies,  and  he  initiated  the  vigorous  prosecution  of 
violation  of  federal  laws  on  this  subject.  He  was  the 
first  President  to  call  a  congress  of  governors  to  arouse 
the  states  to  concurrent  action. 

He  was  constantly  getting  up  commissions  to  make 
investigations  in  fields  where  he  thought  good  could 
be  worked  by  changes.  He  appointed  a  Country  Life 
Commission  to  see  whether  it  was  not  possible  in  some 
way  to  make  country  life  more  attractive  and  to  prevent 
the  movement  toward  town.  His  commissions,  after  a 
while,  rendered  Congress  impatient,  and  by  statute  it 
set  specific  limits  to  the  President's  power  to  appoint 
any  commissions  and  to  incur  clerical  and  other  expense 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

in  their  transactions;  but  this  legislation  was  not  enacted 
in  time  to  restrain  him.  It  only  affected  his  successors. 

His  foreign  policy  was  very  vigorous.  He  asserted 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  the  Venezuela  matter.  His 
action  clarified  the  situation  and  prevented  what  might 
have  become  a  violation  of  the  Doctrine  from  reaching 
any  such  a  point.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  become  exceed 
ingly  active  in  seeking  to  bring  peace  between  Japan  and 
Russia.  He  wrote  letters  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  and 
the  high  authorities  in  Japan,  and  he  exercised  an  influ 
ence  to  secure  the  truce  and  the  treaty  that  is  most 
exceptional  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  and  rare 
even  in  the  history  of  European  countries. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  his  explorations  except  that  he  pas 
sionately  loved  a  study  of  nature,  a  study  of  fauna  and  the 
excitement  of  hunting.  He  revelled  in  the  novels  of  Sienk- 
iewicz  and  talked  them  over  by  the  hour  with  their  transla 
tor,  Jeremiah  Curtis.  He  studied  and  knew  much  about 
the  Irish  Sagas.  His  range  of  interests  from  the  poetry  of 
Celtic  Ireland  to  "Nature  Faking"  reveals  his  boundless 
activity  of  mind. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  would  have  made  a  great  war 
President.  He  would  have  selected,  without  regard 
to  party  or  political  embarrassment,  the  men  whom 
he  regarded  as  best  adapted  to  do  the  work  in  the  various 
departments.  He  would  have  imparted  to  his  lieutenants 
a  spirit  and  confidence  of  successful  achievement  that 
would  have  overcome  any  obstacles.  He  had  not  only 
the  dynamic  force  himself,  but  he  had  the  power  of 
communicating  it  to  his  subordinates  and  he  could 
diffuse  his  spirit  through  the  entire  government  down 
to  the  last  messenger  boy.  There  would  have  been 
an  utter  absence  of  fear  that  some  subordinate  of  his 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

would  rob  him  of  credit  as  a  leader,  and  his  joy  at  success 
in  any  department  would  have  led  him  to  do  more  than 
justice  in  his  public  appreciation.  He  would  have  made 
the  government  move  as  one  man.  He  would  have 
been  merciless  in  cutting  off  heads  of  men  whether 
good  or  bad  who  could  not  do  their  job.  Into  every 
department  and  field  of  preparation,  no  matter  how 
technical  or  complicated,  he  would  have  entered  and 
with  his  lightning  facility  for  acquisition,  he  would 
have  learned  enough  to  understand  success  or  failure 
and  would  have  acted  on  his  judgment. 

I  venture  to  conclude  with  something  I  have  said 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  another  place: 

"Mr.  Roosevelt,  earlier  than  any  other  public  man, 
saw  the  real  issues  in  this  war,  and  with  characteristic 
courage  demanded  what  the  majority  thought  unwise, 
intervention  by  our  government.  He  urged,  with  pro 
phetic  vision,  adequate  preparation  for  the  struggle 
he  saw  about  to  be  forced  upon  us.  He  suffered  much 
in  mind  and  soul  as  he  saw  things  left  undone  by  our 
government  which  he  deemed  essential  to  national 
safety  and  the  performance  of  national  duty.  For  over 
and  above  everything,  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  deeply 
patriotic  American.  He  had  intensified  his  passionate 
love  of  his  country  that  was  natural  in  him  by  acquiring 
an  intimate  knowledge  and  a  profound  appreciation 
of  the  great  sacrificial  struggle  needed  to  make  her 
great.  He  left  no  doubt  of  his  willingness  himself  to 
render  the  ultimate  sacrifice  in  her  behalf.  His  spirit 
of  patriotic  devotion  was  web  and  woof  of  his 
character. 

"He  sent  his  four  boys  forth  to  war  with  the  pride 
of  a  Roman  tribune.  Through  his  father's  tears  for 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

Quentin's  death,  there  shone  the  stern  joy  that  a  son 

of  his  had  been  given  to  die  the  death  he  would  himself 

ave  sought  on  the  field  of  battle  in  his  country's  cause. 

"Theodore  Roosevelt's  example  of  real  sacrifice 
was  of  inestimable  value  to  our  country  in  this  war. 
The  nation  has  lost  the  most  commanding,  the  most 
original,  the  most  interesting  and  the  most  brilliant 
personality  in  American  public  life  since  Lincoln." 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

THOSE  who  knew  Theodore  Roosevelt  best  honored 
him  the  most  sincerely,  not  simply  because  they 
loved  him,  but  because  the  intimacy  of  friendship 
showed  no  pettiness  or  meanness  in  him. 

My  object  has  been  to  write  the  story  of  his  life  in 
such  a  way  that:  the  reader  may  not  only  know  the 
main  incidents  of  his  full,  joyous  and  varied  career, 
and  gain  a  correct  idea  of  his  great  public  services, 
but  also  come  to  know  the  man  himself,  his  ideals,  the 
motives  of  his  public  acts,  and  the  road  which  he  believed 
America  must  travel  to  be  worthy  of  her  place  among 
the  nations. 

During  that  period  of  his  life  when  he  was  the  object 
of  bitter  partisan  attacks,  I  met  hundreds  of  men  and 
women  who  mistook  his  motives  and  had  a  grotesquely 
false  idea  of  his  personality.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  know 
that  the  War  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  render  a  great 
service  to  his  country  and  the  world,  and  that  that 
service  was  one  which  the  majority  of  his  former  oppo 
nents  could  and  did  appreciate.  As  a  result,  before 
his  death,  former  misunderstandings  were  in  great 
part  swept  away.  My  hope  is  that  this  book  will  help 
to  end  forever  any  misconceptions  of  the  man  and  his 
purposes  that  may  yet  remain. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  have  turned  more  often 
to  his  own  books  and  articles  than  to  any  other  source 
of  information.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  public 
man  has  ever  left  so  large  a  collection  of  first-hand 
material  for  the  assistance  of  his  biographers.  Through 
out  his  life  he  was  a  constant  writer  of  letters,  addresses, 

(xxiii) 


xxiv  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

editorials,  articles  and  books.  His  Autobiography,  while 
not  a  complete  history,  includes  many  of  the  incidents 
of  his  life  down  to  the  end  of  his  Presidency,  and  many 
of  his  personal  impressions.  Unless  the  quotation  indi 
cates  a  different  source,  where  I  have  quoted  his  own 
words  the  quotation  is  drawn  from  this  work. 

Much  of  the  information  and  many  of  the  incidents 
I  have  given  could  not  have  been  recorded  had  it  not 
been  for  the  generous  kindness  of  many  friends  of  Colo 
nel  Roosevelt's  and  of  mine  who  have  placed  at  my 
disposal  letters,  diaries  and  other  original  material 
relating  to  his  personal  characteristics  and  to  important 
events.  I  also  here  desire  to  acknowledge  my  great 
obligation  to  Mr.  Shippen  Lewis,  of  the  Philadelphia 
Bar,  who  has  given  much  of  his  time  and  thought  to 
help  me  in  the  preparation  of  the  book. 

WM.  DRAPER  LEWIS. 

Law  School 

University  of  Pennsylvania 
March  6,  1919. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN 

THE    news    that   Theodore   Roosevelt    was    dead 
stunned  America  on  the  morning  of  January  6, 
1919.  The  approaching  Peace  Conference  in  Paris, 
the  dark  cloud  of  Bolshevism  advancing  from  Russia  over 
Poland  and  East  Germany,  events  big  with  civilization's 
future,  were  for  the  time  being  forgotten.    In  spirit,  mil 
lions  of  the  American  people  stood  in  the  room  of  the  un 
pretentious  house  on  the  outskirts  of  the  little  village  of 
Oyster  Bay  where  the  man  each  felt  he  knew  lay  dead. 

The  death  of  no  other  man  could  have  brought  such 
a  universal  sense  of  personal  loss,  a  sense  of  loss  which 
actual  acquaintance  served  but  to  deepen  and  intensify. 
This  was  not  because  he  had  for  seven  and  a  half  years 
been  President  of  the  United  States  and  throughout  the 
major  part  of  his  working  life  had  held  public  office.  It 
was  not  because  he  had  been  a  leader  in  momentous  polit 
ical  contests  nor  because  the  record  of  his  public  service  is 
full  of  things  done  of  enduring  value.  Neither  was  it  be 
cause  of  his  wonderfully  diversified  ability.  Since  Caesar, 
perhaps  no  one  has  attained  among  crowding  duties  and 
great  responsibilities  such  high  proficiency  in  so  many 
separate  fields  of  human  activity.  His  knowledge  of  his 
tory  was  equaled  by  few.  As  a  naturalist  he  won  for  him 
self  a  recognized  position  in  the  front  rank.  He  was  a 
great  explorer  and  hunter  of  wild  game.  Several  of  his 
books  are  more  than  well  written  and  more  than  one  of 
his  speeches  will  live  among  the  enduring  utterances  of 
our  great  statesmen. 

*  (17) 


18      p. -:.  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

It  was,  however,  something  more  than  any  one  or  all 
of  these  things  which  gave  him  his  hold  on  the  affections 
of  the  American  people.  We  may  admire  a  public  man 
for  the  things  he  has  accomplished,  for  his  brilliant  and 
versatile  ability;  /we  may  trust  him  because  w.e  believe 
in  the  wisdom  off  his  judgment;  but  our  affection  only 
finds  root  in  hjs/character. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  no  exception  to  this  rule. 
The  attainments  of  his  mind,  the  exalted  office  which  he 
held,  the  momentous  character  of  the  work  he  accom 
plished  all  served  but  to  bring  him  to  the  attention  of 
mankind.  Knowing  him,  people  loved  ^Jiim,  not  for  these 
things,  but  for  certain  great  qualities  of  character  ex 
pressed  in  his  high  sense  ofl  lionor,  his  burning 
hatred  of  injustice,  his  deep  sense  of  the  obligation 
for  personal  service  and,  above  all,  his  intense  love  for 
his  country. 

Again,  perhaps,  not  a  little  of  our  affection  for  him 
arose  from  the  fact  that  he  was  very  human,  which  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  he  had  faults. 

Once  he  told  me  that  he  had  made  many  mistakes; 
but  just  to  himself  as  to  others,  he  jejuickly  added:  "If 
I  had  not  been  willing  to  risk  making  mistakes  I  would 
have  accomplished  nothing  worui  while."  Somehow, 
we  feel  the  same  way  about  his  faults — his  occasional 
impatience  of  temper,  his  unconscious  unfairness  to 
those  whose  point  of  view  towards  public  questions  led 
them  to  oppose  measures  wilich  he  believed  essential  to 
the  moral  well-being  of  the  country.  After  all,  these 
and  other  faults  and  foibles  were  not  serious.  No  one  of 
them  had  its  origin  in  coldness  of  heart,  or  in  anything 
mean,  or  petty  or  low.  They  were  not  indexes  to  serious 
defects  of  character,  but  rather  to  his  intense  feeling 


THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN  19 

for  the  enduring  things  of  life — honor,  truth,  duty, 
service.  He  had  the  defects  of  his  great  qualities. 

Roosevelt  is  our  typical  American.  Not  that  we  are 
like  him,  but  in  that  the  worker  in  field,  forest,  mill  and 
office,  irrespective  of  financial  position  and  social  standing, 
sees  in  this  great  scholar  and  statesman,  this  vigorous, 
hearty,  courageous  out-of-door  man,  with  his  high  ideals 
and  intense  love  for  the  everyday  simple  things  of  life, 
the  embodiment  of  a  type  which,  above  all  others,  he 
admires. 

The  sense  of  personal  loss  referred  to  is  too  present 
and  the  public  events  in  which  he  took  part  or  discussed 
are  too  recent  to  make  it  possible  to  examine  fully  or 
weigh  impartially  the  public  measures  he  advocated  or 
the  wisdom  of  his  criticisms.  We  are,  however,  better 
qualified  than  those  who  shall  come  after  us  to  judge  the 
effect  of  his  words,  his  actions  and  his  personality  on  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 

Many  eulogies  will  hereafter  be  written  upon  his 
life's  work,  but  we,  his  contemporaries,  know  that  for  us 
his  greatest  work  is  expressed  in  the  simple  statement: 
He  raised  the  Ideals  of  the  People. 

Compare  the  sordid  commercialism,  the  low  financial 
morale,  the  disregard  of  social  welfare,  prevalent  in  this 
country  in  the  middle  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  with  the  awakened  social  conscience  of  modern 
America.  No  one  pretends  that  our  ideals  as  a  people  are 
perfect,  or  that  we  even  live  up  to  our  ideals;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  traveled  a  long  distance  in  the  last 
three  decades  towards  an  America  of  which  he  dreamed 
—an  America  which  should  be  a  better  place  to  live  in, 
not  for  some  of  the  people,  but  for  all  of  the  people.  The 
man  in  the  street  as  well  as  the  student  of  public  opinion 


20  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

knows  that  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  because  of  the  truths 
he  dared  to  tell  and  the  influences  he*  dared  to  fight,  are 
due,  more  than  to  any  other  one  man,  the  improvement 
in  our  financial  practices  and  the  higher,  better  ideals 
of  the  rising  generation. 

Neither  do  we  need  the  perspective  of  time  to  learn 
the  simple,  but  all-important,  lessons  of  the  main  events 
of  his  life.  These  events  speak  for  themselves.  They 
need  no  comment  or  criticism  to  teach  again  the  need  for 
hard  work  and  often  of  great  courage  to  attain  any  end 
which  is  worth  while;  or  to  impress  on  us  the  age-old  truth 
that  opportunity,  though  she  may  come  in  an  unexpected 
form,  comes  only  to  him  who  is  prepared  to  meet  her. 
Men  marvel  at  the  great  amount  of  work  he  accomplished. 
There  are  two  reasons:  One  is  found  in  the  fact  that  his 
youthful  struggle  against  delicate  health  had  given  him 
a  sound  body  to  be  the  servant  of  his  restless  energy; 
the  other  is  that  he  cultivated  his  tastes  and  ordered  his 
time  so  that,  though  he  played  more  than  most  busy  men 
and  usually  obtained  sufficient  rest  and  relaxation,  he 
never  wasted  or  frittered  away  his  time.  The  value  of  the 
conservation  of  time,  of  the  relaxation  which  comes  from 
complete  change  of  mental  occupation  especially  after 
moments  of  intense  excitement,  is  the  lesson  he  taught 
everyone  who  came  into  working  contact  with  him. 
Twenty  minutes  after  killing  an  elephant  in  an  African 
jungle  and  being  near  dentil  in  the  subsequent  stampede 
of  the  others,  found  him  reading  Balzac.  In  the  midst  of 
the  excitement  of  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1912,  the 
writer  can  bear  witness  that  he  spent  every  moment  of 
the  time  that  he  was  not  needed  reading  Herodotus. 

Of  his  physical  courage  the  stories  are  innumerable. 
In  this,  or  indeed  any  other  history  of  his  life,  it  is  only 


THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN  21 

possible  to  make  a  selection.  He  could  fire  as  coolly  and 
accurately  at  the  charging  lion  or  rhinoceros,  where  to 
miss  meant  serious  injury  or  death,  as  at  a  mark.  He 
could  venture  on  a  hazardous  journey  down  an  unknown 
river  and  risk  death  from  disease  and  exhaustion  in  the 
tropical  jungle  of  Central  South  America.  He  could 
face  a  great  audience  and  make  the  speech  he  had  prom 
ised  to  make,  within  a  few  minutes  after  being  shot  by 
a  would-be  assassin,  and  when  he  had  no  certainty  that 
the  shot  would  not  prove  fatal.  He  did  not  believe  that 
he  was  especially  brave.  He  thought  that  by  conscious 
effort  he  had  gained  control  over  his  nerves.  Be  it  so. 
Few  men  gain  such  complete  control. 

There  are  innumerable  instances  also  of  his  moral 
courage  that  make  inspiring  reading.  I  believe  the  highest 
test  of  courage  in  a  public  man  is  his  willingness,  if  neces 
sary,  to  accomplish  an  object  he  regards  as  right,  to  face 
the  certainty  of  being  misunderstood  by  those  whose 
good  opinion  he  earnestly  desires.  Colonel  Roosevelt, 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  proved  that  he  had  this  kind 
of  moral  courage. 

In  the  fall  of  1911,  and  the  early  part  of  1912,  he  was 
confronted  with  a  political  situation  which  required  him 
to  decide  whether  he  would  become  a  candidate  for  the 
Republican  nomination.  Politicians  of  the  Progressive 
wing  of  the  Republican  party  flocked  to  Oyster  Bay. 
They  assured  him  that  he  could  win  the  nomination,  and, 
nominated,  would  be  triumphantly  elected.  Always 
underestimating  his  own  political  strength,  he  had  no 
idea  at  the  time  that  he  could  be  nominated.  He  knew 
that  if  he  made  the  contest  for  the  nomination,  his  motives 
would  be  misunderstood,  not  only  by  his  political  oppo 
nents,  but  by  many  whose  continued  confidence  he  desired 


22  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

more,  perhaps,  than  he  desired  anything  else  in  the  world, 
except  to  do  the  right  as  it  was  •given  to  him  to  see  the 
right.  Knowing  that  he  would  be  thus  misunderstood, 
he  made  the  contest  because  he  believed  that  by  so  doing 
he  would  advance,  not  his  own  political  fortunes,  but  the 
cause  of  orderly  progress  to  better  social  and  industrial 
conditions;  that  he  could,  in  this  way,  most  effectively 
combat  those  forces  of  reaction  which,  if  not  overcome, 
in  the  end  would  drive  the  country  to  violent  revolution. 
Students  of  his  life  and  times  will  always  differ  as  to 
whether  his  judgment  was  correct  and  his  action  wise;  but, 
unlike  many  of  his  contemporaries,  they  will  not  mis 
understand  his  motives;  they  will  appreciate  the  moral 
courage  with  which  he  faced  the  disapproval  and  mis 
understanding  of  life-long  friends. 

As  he  saw  the  truth,  so  he  spoke  it.  It  was  not  that  he 
did  not  care  for  his  own  future,  or  was  not  accustomed  to 
consider  the  effect  of  word  or  action.  On  the  contrary, 
as  a  politician,  he  wanted  support  from  all  kinds  of  people, 
and  he  was  always  willing  to  use  every  honorable  means 
to  secure  support  for  himself,  his  party  or  his  political 
ideals.  He  was  a  past  master  in  tHe^irt  of  handling  men, 
and  making  them  do  what  he  wanted  them  to  do.  But 
by  conscious  effort,  as  a  young  man,  he  had  so  schooled 
himself  that  he  never  balanced  what  he  regarded  as  right 
to  say  or  do  against  its  possible  effect  on  his  own  fortune. 
No  man  was  so  highly  placed  in  the  political  or  business 
world  that  he  feared  to  publicly  condemn  him.  No 
interest  or  class  was  so  powerful  that  it  could  control  his 
action  against  his  judgment.  He  could  send  a  mes 
sage  to  Congress  which  he  knew  would  alienate  the 
political  support  of  some  special  interest.  He  could 
insist  on  the  retention  of  a  non-union  man  in  the  Govern- 


THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN  23 

ment  printing  office,  against  the  vigorous  protest  of  union 
labor,  or  tell  a  delegation  of  strikers  that  he  would  call 
out  United  States  troops  if  there  was  the  slightest  dis 
order,  though  the  very  object  of  their  visit  was  to  secure 
his  assurance  that  the  troops  would  not  be  used. 

Like  all  other  of  our  great  statesmen  who  have  won 
a  permanent  place  in  the  affections  of  the  people,  he  had 
an  intense  love  for  his  cdyntry.  It  is  said  that  his  whole 
life  was  an  expression  of  'Jubilant  Americanism."  And 
this  is  so,  if  by  it  we  mean  that  his  life  was  an  exuberant 
expression  of  dynamic  force,  a  triumphant  assertion  of 
his  country's  greatness.  With  him,  this  love  for  country 
was  based  on  complete  knowledge.  He  knew  his  country's 
history  as  few  men  knew  it.  No  other  public  man  of  his 
own  or  any  other  time  was  so  intimately  and  personally 
acquainted  with  the  conditions  environing  the  life,  with 
the  outlook,  and  with  the  best  aspirations  of  so  many 
different  classes.  He  could  count  among  his  personal 
friends  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  diplomats,  pub 
licists,  professors,  naturalists,  hunters  of  big  game,  editors, 
explorers,  ranchmen,  social  workers,  captains  of  industry, 
labor  leaders,  Catholic  priests,  Protestant  clergymen  and 
Jewish  rabbis.  He  was  personally  acquainted  with  every 
part  of  the  country.  His  campaign  trips  had  taken  him 
to  every  state  and  to  every  town  of  consequence.  He  had 
spent  summers  in  the  Maine  woods  and  on  the  Western 
plains;  he  had  hunted  grizzlies  in  the  Rockies,  visited 
remote  Indian  tribes  in  the  great  American  desert,  drilled 
troops  in  Texas,  and  herded  cattle  on  the  Little  Missouri. 
At  will  he  could  visualize  and  describe  the  physical  aspect 
of  any  mountain,  stream,  plain  or  desert  he  had  ever 
seen,  as  only  those  can  who  are  at  once,  as  he  was,  a  good 
naturalist,  a  keen  huntsman  and  a  lover  of  nature. 


24  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Knowing  his  country,  he  was  infinitely  removed  from 
the  politician  whose  stock-in-trade,  is  a  loud-mouthed 
boasting  of  our  superiority  to  others.  With  clear  vision 
he  saw,  not  only  the  good,  but  the  defects  in  our  national 
character  and  the  dangers  of  the  future.  These  defects 
and  dangers  he  did  not  hesitate  to  point  out.  Unblinded 
by  her  faults,  he  knew  and  loved  America  as  she  is;  spend 
ing  himself  joyously  to  help  her  become  the  country  of 
his  dreams.  I  say  joyously,  because  throughout  his  life, 
to  the  very  end,  there  abided  in  him  perfect  faith  in  her 
glorious  destiny. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHILBHOQB 

JUST  six  years  after  the  English  Pilgrims  landed  on 
Plymouth  Rock  a  company  of  Dutch  emigrants,  led 
by  Peter  Minuit,  sailed  up  "the  finest  harbor  in  the 
world"  and  disembarked  on  a  long,  narrow  island  which 
the  Indians  had  named  Manhattan.  Minuit  bought  this 
island,  on  which  the  best  part  of  New  York  City  is  now 
located,  for  sixty  guilders,  or  twenty -four  dollars.  Other 
pilgrims  soon  followed  Peter  Minuit' s  party.  When  the 
white  settlement  numbered  about  two  hundred  souls, 
they  named  the  region  New  Netherland  and  its  flourish 
ing  metropolis  New  Amsterdam. 

Eighteen  years  later,  in  1644,  the  first  of  the  Roosevelt 
family  came  from  Holland  to  settle  in  this  country.  His 
name  was  Klaes  Martensen  Van  Roosevelt.  This  ances 
tor  of  the  Roosevelt  family  was,  like  the  forefathers  of  most 
Americans,  an  immigrant  who  came  to  the  New  World 
presumably  to  make  his  fortune,  naturally  choosing  the 
Dutch  settlement  of  New  Amsterdam  as  his  new  home. 
WTien  Klaes  Van  Roosevelt  reached  Manhattan  Island, 
he  found  on  it  a  cosmopolitan  town  of  four  hundred  or 
five  hundred  inhabitants  who  spoke  eighteen  different 
languages.  The  satisfaction  of  the  worthy  Dutchman 
and  of  his  descendants  with  the  city  of  his  choice  is  indi 
cated  by  the  fact  that  every  Roosevelt  in  the  line  from 
Klaes  to  Theodore  has  been  born  on  Manhattan  Island. 

New  Netherland  and  New  Amsterdam  both  became 
New  York,  and  the  Dutch  province  became  a  British 

(25) 


26  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

colony  and  then  an  American  State.  But  for  nearly  two 
centuries  the  old  Dutch  families  retained  their  ancestral 
language  and  many  of  the  habits  of  their  forbears.  The 
Roosevelts  prospered,  as  did  others  of  the  original  set 
tlers'  descendants.  One  of  the  Roosevelts  bought  a  large 
tract  of  land  on  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan  Island  which 
is  now  called  the  Battery,  and  there  built  his  home.  As 
the  city  increased  in  size,  its  lower  part  became  more  and 
more  given  over  to  business,  and  the  old  families  were 
compelled  to  move  farther  and  farther  up  town. 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  grandfather,  Cornelius  Van 
Schaack  Roosevelt,  lived  in  a  big  house  at  Fourteenth 
Street  and  Broadway.  "Inside,"  said  the  Colonel  years 
afterwards,  "there  was  a  large  hall  running  up  to  the  roof; 
there  was  a  tessellated  black  and  white  marble  floor,  and 
a  circular  staircase  round  the  sides  of  the  hall,  from  the 
top  floor  down.  We  children  much  admired  both  the  tes 
sellated  floor  and  the  circular  staircase.  I  think  we  were 
right  about  the  latter,  but  I  am  not  so  sure  as  to  the  tes 
sellated  floor."  Cornelius  Roosevelt  was  a  substantial 
citizen  who  had  not  only  his  business  but  a  considerable 
fortune  inherited  from  his  father.  He  studied  at  Colum 
bia  College  and  then  entered  business  as  a  glass  mer 
chant,  an  occupation  to  which  he  devoted  himself  for 
most  of  his  life.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  charitable 
enterprises  and  gave  largely  to  their  support.  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Sr.,  the  father  of  the  President,  was  the  son  of 
Cornelius,  and  succeeded  him  in  the  glass  business.  Like 
his  father,  he  had  an  ample  fortune  and  every  social 
advantage  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

There  was  nowhere  in  the  United  States  a  more  exclu 
sive  circle  than  the  descendants  of  the  original  Dutch 
settlers  of  New  York  City.  Washington  Irving  has  so 


CHILDHOOD  27 

well  portrayed  them  in  his  "History  of  New  York,"  writ 
ten  under  the  pen  name  of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,  that 
the  word  Knickerbocker  has  come  to  represent  the  city's 
best  in  lineage.  The  Roosevelt  family  was  and  is  a  Knick 
erbocker  family,  and  it  is  important  to  remember  that) 
fact  in  reading  Theodore  Roosevelt's  life.  He  had  the 
advantages  and  the  disadvantages  which  come  with  social 
position,  wealth,  culture  Wd  refinement./  From  the 
beginning  of  his  public  life  to  its  end  he  had  the  gift  of 
easy  personal  approach  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men.  He  was  at  home  in  the  mountains  with  hunters 
and,  on  the  plains,  with  cow-punchers;  but  he  was 
equally  at  home  in  the  White  House  receiving  distin 
guished  foreigners,  or  in  a  New  York  ball-room.  This 
was  one  of  the  advantages  of  a  heritage  of  culture,  when 
combined,  as  in  Roosevelt's  case,  with  an  intense  interest 
in  people.  The  disadvantage,  of  course,  lay  in  the  fact 
that  wealth  and  culture  open  interests  not  shared  by  those 
who  do  not  possess  them,  and  these  very  interests  un 
shared  by  the  average  citizen,  prove  a  barrier  to  political 
success  in  a  democracy.  He  had  to  show  that  the  compar 
ative  luxury  of  his  upbringing  had  not  deprived  him  of 
the  ability  to  fend  for  himself,  and  wliat  was  more  import-  j 
ant,  of  the  ability  to  understand  and  sympathize  with  ! 
men  and  women  of  social  environments  other  than  his  own 
Into  such  a  family,  then,  Theodore  Roosevelt  was 
born  on  October  27th,  1858.  The  long  dispute  between 
the  North  and  the  South  was  rapidly  taking  on  a  more 
and  more  sinister  aspect.  In  a  final  vain  effort  to  bridge 
the  chasm  by  compromise,  the  voters  had  united  to 
elect  a  Democratic  President, — destined  to  be  the  last 
Democrat  in  the  White  House  till  over  twenty  years 
should  pass.  Men  were  widely  interested  in  political 


28  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

questions  as  they  have  probably  never  been  interested 
since.  It  was  a  suitable  time  for  the  birth  of  a  man  who 
was  to  give  the  greater  part  of  his  life  to  public  service. 

The  house  in  which  the  Roosevelts  lived  and  in  which 
Theodore  was  born  stood  at  28  East  Twentieth  Street, 
in  New  York  City.  It  was  then  a  good-sized  city  house 
furnished  in  the  solid,  rather  gloomy  style  which  was  gen 
erally  accepted  in  New  York  sixty  years  ago. 

Roosevelt's  father,  Theodore,  Sr.,  had  a  strong  influ 
ence  on  the  future  President's  life  and  character,  although 
he  died  when  his  son  was  only  nineteen  years  old.  Of  him 
President  Roosevelt  /said,  "My  father  was  the  best  man 
I  ever  knew. "  He^yas  a  busy  man  and  a  happy  one,  in 
which  respects  the  Colonel  resembled  him.  He  was  a 
devoted  husband  and  father,  a  successful  merchant  and 
a  tireless  helper  of  the  helpless.  It  was  said  of  him  after 
his  untimely  death  at  the  age  of  forty-six  that  he  was 
"a  man  of  untiring  energy,  and  of  prodigious  industry, 
the  most  valiant  fighter  of  his  day  for  the  right,  and  the 
winner  of  his  fights. " 

He  was  in  the  prime  of  his  youth  when  the  Civil 
War  brought  its  many  problems  /to  be  solved.  Those 
were  four  hard  years  for  the  Roosevelts.  The  Bulloch 
family  of  Georgia,  of  which\  tlje  boy's  mother  was  a 
member,  were  active  and  influential  on  the  side  of 
the  South.  Little  Theodore's  uncle,  Captain  James 
D.  Bulloch,  had  been  in  the  United  States  Navy,  Re 
signing  at  the  opening  of  the  war,  he  offered  his  serv 
ices  to  the  new  Confederate  government,  and  was  sent  to 
England  to  buy  arms  for  the  Confederacy.  Then  he  was 
commissioned  to  purchase  and  equip  vessels  there  to 
fight  battles  for  the  South.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  Captain  Bulloch  man- 


CHILDHOOD  29 

aged  to  equip  and  float  a  half  dozen  ships  flying  the  flag 
of  the  Confederacy.  One  of  these  was  the  Alabama,  which 
did  so  much  damage  that  Great  Britain,  after  the  war, 
was  compelled  by  arbitration  to  pay  to  the  United 
States  $15,000,000  for  having  allowed  Captain  Bulloch 
to  build  her  in  an  English  port. 

Irvine  Stephens  Bulloch,  a  younger  brother  of  Mrs. 
Roosevelt,  also  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  Navy,  and  was 
a  middy  on  the  Alabama  during  her  battle  with  the 
Kearsarge  off  the  coast  of  France.  When  the  Southern 
warship  was  sunk  by  the  Kearsarge,  young  Bulloch  com 
manded  the  gun  which  fired  the  last  shot  aboard  the 
Alabama  before  she  went  down.  He  was  rescued  by  men 
from  an  English  yacht,  and  afterward  married  the  daugh 
ter  of  one  of  his  British  rescuers.  Young  Theodore  Roose 
velt  had  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  character  and  ability 
of  his  Southern  uncles,  though  he  believed  that  they 
fought  on  the  wrong  side. 

The  sufferings  and  sorrows  of  the  war  appealed 
strongly  to  Roosevelt  the  father.  He  did  all  he  could  to 
befriend  and  improve  the  condition  of  the  soldier.  He  was 
a  founder  of  the  Union  League,  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  rallying  men,  money  and  munitions  to  carry  on  the 
cause  of  the  North.  He  was  also  one  of  the  first  in  getting 
in  order  the  Sanitary  Commission,  which  did  much  for 
the  health  and  benefit  of  the  soldiers  at  the  front.  Dur 
ing  the  war,  in  addition  to  all  these  labors,  he  devoted 
much  time  to  caring  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  as  well 
as  for  the  families  and  widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers. 
He  drafted  the  Act  of  Congress  which  enabled  soldiers  to 
allot  part  of  their  pay  to  their  dependants  and  was  ap 
pointed  by  President  Lincoln  as  one  of  the  commissioners 
to  carry  the  act  into  effect  in  New  York.  In  pursuance 


30  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

of  his  duties  as  a  commissioner  he  traveled  about  among 
New  York  regiments  at  the  front  and  induced  many  sol 
diers  then  wasting  their  wages  to  assign  certain  monthly 
amounts  to  their  families. 

When  thousands  of  soldiers  returned  to  New  York 
City  at  the  end  of  the  war,  with  no/  means  of  livelihood, 
he  organized  at  his  own  house^the  Soldiers'  Employment 
Bureau.  A  great  number  of  tnd  soldiers  had  not  received 
their  pay  from  the  government,  and  so-called  claim  agents 
pretended  to  get  their  money  for  them,  but  robbed  them 
instead.  To  combat  this  end,  Roosevelt  helped  to  form 
the  Protective  War  Claims  Association.  

Besides  all  this,  he  was  president  of  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  and  an  active  participant  in  the  work  of  other 
similar  organizations.  He  was  particularly  interested  in 
societies  to  prevent  cruelty  to  children  and  cruelty  to 
animals.  The  Newsboys'  Lodging-Houses  were  an  effec 
tive  means  of  keeping  boys  off  the  street,  and  Mr.  Roose 
velt  took  an  active  interest  in  them.  Years  afterwards 
one  of  these  newsboys  was  Governor  Brady  of  Alaska  and 
served  under  his  former  benefactor's  son.  Under  Pres 
ident  Hayes,  Mr.  Roosevelt  served  as  Collector  of  the 
Port  of  New  York. 

But  with  all  these  manifold  activities,,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Sr.,  had  plenty  of  time  for  his  family.  His 
son  relates  that  he  and  his  brother  and  sisters  used  to  wait 
in  the  library  in  the  evening  until  they  heard  their  father's 
front  door  key  rattling  in  the  latch  and  then  they  would 
rush  out  to  greet  him  and  troop  after  him  into  his  room 
while  he  was  dressing  for  dinner.  There  they  w^ere  regaled 
with  novelties  which  their  father  extracted  from  his  pocket 
for  their  amusement  and  with  the  trinkets  which  he  kept 
in  a  little  box  on  his  dressing-table,  which  the  children 


CHILDHOOD  31 

always  spoke  of  as  "treasures."  On  special  occasions 
each  child  would  receive  a  special  trinket  for  his  "very 
own."  Often,  in  the  summer,  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  com 
plete  his  business  and  take  an  early  train  to  the  country, 
where  he  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  had  taken  the  children 
for  their  yearly  outing.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  one  or 
two  of  the  children  would  meet  him  at  the  station  in  a 
four-in-hand,  which  he  delighted  to  drive,  and  away  they 
would  all  go  at  what  appeared  to  the  boy  a  tremendous 
pace.  All  this  kind  of  family  intimacy  formed  the  «basis  .  , 
of  the  strong  love  which  Theodore  had  for  his  father. 

Long  after  his  father's  death,  Roosevelt  said  of  him 
that  his  father  wras  the  only  man  of  whom  he  wras  ever 
really  afraid,  adding,  "I  do  not  mean  that  it  was  a  wrong 
fear,  for  he  was  entirely  just,  and  we  children  adored 
him."  On  one  occasion  only  did  the  father  administer 
corporal  punishment  to  his  son  Theodore.  It  appears  that 
Theodore  had  bitten  his  elder  sister's  arm  and  had  in 
stantly  taken  refuge,  first  in  the  yard  and  then  under  the 
kitchen  table,  from  the  punishment  which  he  knew  he 
deserved.  His  father  followed  him  and,  discovering  his 
presence  under  the  table,  dropped  on  all  fours  and  darted 
for  him.  The  boy  feebly  hurled  a  handful  of  dough  at  his 
pursuer,  arid  then  ran  for  the  stairs.  Half  way  up  the 
stairs  his  father  caught  him  and  administered  the  pun 
ishment  which  he  afterwards  acknowledged  that  he 
richly  deserved. 

Of  his  mother,  Martha  Bulloch,  Roosevelt  said,  "She/ 
was   a   sweet,   gracious,   beautiful   Southern   wroman,    a 
delightful  companion  and  beloved  by  everybody.     She 
was  entirely  'unreconstructed'  to  the  day  of  her  death." 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  had  been  born  and  brought  up  in  a  typ-  ,^^ 
ical  Southern  atmosphere.    Her  grandfather,  Gen.  Daniel 


32  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Stewart,  had  joined  the  Revolutionary  Army  when  a  boy, 
was  captured  by  the  British  and  escaped  from  one  of  the 
enemy's  prison  ships.  After  his  escape  he  served  in  the 
Continental  Army  as  a  captain  under  Sumter  and  Marion. 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  lived  during  her  childhood  at  Roswell, 
Georgia,  and  was  familiar  with  all  of  the  delightful  darky 
characteristics  and  stories  which  Joel  Chandler  Harris  has 
immortalized  in  "Uncle  Remus."  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
Jr.,  never  saw  his  mother's  birthplace  until  October  20, 
1905,  when  he  was  forty-seven  years  old.  He  told  the 
citizens  of  that  little  town,  then,  how  deeply  he  was  moved 
by  coming  to  the  place  of  which  he  had  heard  so  much 
from  her,  and  called  attention  to  his  great  good  fortune 
in  having  the  right  to  claim  that  his  blood  was  half  South 
ern  and  half  Northern.  Indeed,  although  his  convictions, 
as  a  boy  and  as  a  man,  were  entirely  with  the  Northern 
cause,  he  always  had  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  the 
Southern  point  of  view,  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  his  love 
for  his  "unreconstructed"  mother. 

All  through  the  Civil  War  the  father  was  a  strong 
Lincoln  Republican  and  the  mother  a  strong  secessionist, 
but  this  did  not  interfere  with  the  affection  and  unity  of 
the  family.  The  Colonel  relates  that  towards  the  close  of 
the  war  he  grew  to  have  a  partial  but  alert  understand 
ing  of  the  family  difference,  "and  once,"  he  says,  "when 
I  felt  that  I  had  been  wronged  by  maternal  discipline 
during  the  day,  I  attempted  a  partial  vengeance  by  pray 
ing  with  loud  fervor  for  the  success  of  the  Union  arms, 
when  we  all  came  to  say  our  prayers  before  my  mother  in 
the  evening.  She  was  not  only  a  most  devoted  mother, 
but  was  also  blessed  with  a  strong  sense  of  humor,  and 
she  was  too  much  amused  to  punish  me;  but  I  was  warned 
not  to  repeat  the  offense,  under  penalty  of  my  father's 


CHILDHOOD  33 

being  informed — he  being  the  dispenser  of  serious  punish 
ment." 

There  were  three  other  children  in  the  Roosevelt 
family,  Anna,  who  was  three  year  older  than  Theodore, 
and  his  younger  brother  and  sister,  Elliot  and  Corinne, 
who  were  his  juniors  by  one  and  three  years  respectively. 
Mrs.  Roosevelt's  mother,  Mrs.  Bulloch,  also  lived  with 
the  family,  and  a  young  unmarried  aunt,  Anna  Bulloch. 
There  were  also  as  associates  of  his  early  childhood  his 
cousins,  two  of  whom  lived  next  door,  and  Edith  Carow, 
a  friend  of  his  sister  Corinne's,  who  lived  not  far  away  on 
Union  Square  and  who  wras,  years  later,  to  become  his  wife.  \ 

Altogether  this  group  of  youngsters  seem  to  have  led 
a  very  happy,  wholesome,  normal  life.  During  the  winter 
they  lived  at  the  house  on  Twentieth  Street,  while  during 
the  summer  they  were  always  taken  somewhere  in  the 
country.  Of  course  they  enjoyed  the  country  very  much 
more  than  the  city.  There  they  had  all  kinds  of  pets — 
cats,  ducks,  rabbits,  a  racoon  and  a  Shetland  pony  named 
General  Grant,  for  whom  the  Colonel's  children  named 
their  own  pony  thirty  years  later.  Christmas  and  Thanks 
giving  were  times  of  special  pleasure,  as  they  are  for  most 
children.  On  Christmas  Eve  each  child  hung  up  the 
largest  stocking  which  could  be  borrowed  from  the  grown 
members  of  the  family,  and  before  dawn  on  Christmas 
morning  they  were  all  seated  on  their  parents'  bed  explor 
ing  the  treasures  which  had  so  miraculously  arrived 
during  the  night.  After  breakfast  the  bigger  Christmas 
presents  were  found  in  the  drawing-room,  each  child's 
presents  arranged  on  a  separate  table.  "I  never  knew 
anyone  else,"  said  the  Colonel,  "have  what  seemed  to  me 
such  attractive  Christmases,  and  in  the  next  generation 
I  tried  to  reproduce  them  exactly  for  my  own  children." 

3 


34  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Next  door  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Senior's  house  was 
that  of  his  brother  Robert.  Both  .of  these  houses  had 
wide  porches  looking  upon  the  yards  in  the  rear,  and  these 
porches  formed  the  children's  playground  during  the 
winters  in  the  city.  No  doubt  the  future  naturalist  took 
special  delight  in  the  proximity  of  his  uncle's  house,  be 
cause  its  owners  possessed,  from  time  to  time,  tropical 
birds  of  beautiful  plumage  and,  on  one  occasion,  a  monkey. 

During  his  fearl^  boyhood  Theodore  Roosevelt  was 
sickly  and  delicat^.  From  a  very  early  age  he  suffered 
from  asthma,  whfybh  for  years  prevented  him  from  sleep 
ing  except  in  a  sitting  posture.  His  later  robust  health 
was  due  partly  to  the  loving  care  of  his  father  and  mother, 
and  partly  to  his  own  determination  to  become  strong. 
"One  of  my  early  memories,"  he  says,  "is  of  my  father 
walking  up  and  down  the  room  with  me  in  his  arms  at 
night  when  I  was  a  very  small  person,  and  of  sitting  up 
in  bed  gasping,  with  my  father  and  mother  trying  to  help 
me."  Often  his  father,  in  summer,  would  take  him 
driving  through  the  countryside  in  the  darkness  of  night. 
Theodore  recorded  at  one  time  in  his  diary,  "'I  was  sick 
of  the  asthma  last  night.  I  sat  up  for  four  successive 
hours  and  Papa  made  me  smoke  a  cigar."  The  state 
ment  that  he  was  "sick  of  the  asthma  last  night"  occurs 
frequently  in  this  childish  diary. 

In  1869  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  took  all  the  children 
on  a  long  trip  to  Europe.  To  this  trip  Theodore  did  not 
look  back  afterwards  with  any  particular  pleasure.  In 
fact  he  says  that  he  cordially  hated  it,  and  that  all  the 
enjoyment  that  he  and  the  other  children  got  wras  in  explor 
ing  rui,ns  or  mountains  when  they  could  get  away  from 
their  parents,  and  in  playing  in  the  different  hotels.  The 
diary  which  he  kept  at  the  time  bears  witness  to  the 


CHILDHOOD  35 

truth  of  his  later  impressions.  Of  Oxford,  for  instance, 
he  writes,  "We  drove  around  it  and  saw  some  colages." 
His  record  of  the  Lake  country  is  confined  to  a  brief 
statement  about  a  climb  at  Windermere:  "The  view 
was  splendid  on  the  top  and  it  was  very  windy  and  I 
bought  a  sweet  cracker."  At  York  they  seem  to  have 
had  a  more  interesting  time,  for  he  records  that  he  and 
his  sister  Corinne  went  to  the  museum,  "where  we  saw 
birds  and  skeletons  and  Bamie  and  I  went  in  for  a  spree 
and  got  two  shillings'  worth  of  rock  candy."  But,  taken 
as  a  whole,  the  diary  certainly  indicates  a  little  boy  who 
was  asthmatic  and  bored  and  homesick  a  good  deal  of  the 
time.  When  the  family  visited  Europe  again,  four  years 
later,  he  had  matured  sufficiently  to  enjoy  his  trip  and^ 
to  profit  by  it. 

His  sister  Corinne,  now  Mrs.  Douglas  Robinson  of 
New  York,  has  given  me  an  intimate  sketch  of  his  early 
childhood : 

"My  earliest  impressions,"  she  writes  "of  my  brother 
Theodore  are  those  of  a  rather  small,  patient,  suffering 
little  child,  who,  in  spite  of  his  suffering,  was  always  the 
acknowledged  head  of  the  nursery  at  No.  28  East  Twen 
tieth  Street  in  New  York  City,  where  my  brother  Elliot 
and  I  were  his  loving  followers  in  any  game  which  he 
initiated,  or  where  we  listened  with  intense  interest  and 
admiration  to  the  stories  which  he  wove  for  us  day  by 
day,  and  often  even  month  by  month.  These  stories 
almost  always  related  to  strange  and  marvelous  animal 
adventures,  in  which  the  animals  were  personalities  quite 
as  vivid  as  Kipling  gave  to  the  world  a  generation  later 
in  his  Jungle  Books. 

"Owing  to  acute  and  often  agonizing  asthma,  he  showed  I 
as  a  little  boy,  none  of  the  vigorous  quality  which  became  I 


\ 


36  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

part  of  his  very  atmosphere  later  in  life.  I  remember  well, 
in  the  same  house  in  Twentieth  Street,  that  my  father  had 
the  third  room  of  the  second  floor  turned  into  an  outdoor 
piazza  gymnasium,  with  see-saws,  horizontal  and  vertical 
bars,  swings,  etc.,  and  my  brother  always  told  me  of  the 
deep  impression  it  pcodufced  upon  him  when  my  father 
took  him  for  the  first  ttme  to  this  outdoor  gymnasium,  and 
said:  'Theodore,  you\Aave  the  brains,  but  brains  are  of 
comparatively  little  use  without  the  body;  you  have  got 
to  make  your  body,  and  it  lies  with  you  to  make  it,  and  it's 
dull  hard  work,  but  you  can  do  it,'  and  from  that  day  this 
little  boy  of  about  nine  years  old  started  to  make  his  body, 
and  he  never  ceased  in  making  that  body  until  the  day  of 
his  death.  But  in  those  early  years  it  was  a  difficult  task. 
I  can  see  him  now  faithfully  going  through  various 
exercises,  at  different  times  of  the  day,  to  broaden  the 
chest  narrowed  by  this  terrible  shortness  of  breath,  to 
make  the  limbs  and  back  strong  and  able  to  bear  the 
weight  of  what  was  coming  to  him  later  in  life. 

"Perhaps  one  of  his  most  striking  characteristics  as  a 
very  young  boy  was  his  power  of  concentration.  From 
the  very  fact  that  he  was  not  able  originally  to  enter  into 
the  most  vigorous  activities,  he  was  always  reading  or 
writing,  and  was  always  able  to  detach  himself  from  what 
ever  environment  he  was  in  and  become  so  absorbed  in 
the  book  or  paper  which  was  the  matter  on  his  mind  that 
he  was  entirely  forgetful  of  what  was  going  on  around 
him.  This  intense  power  of  concentration,  learned  so 
young,  served  him  well  in  later  life.  I  have  frequently 
seen  him,  on  some  of  his  many  presidential  trips,  detach 
himself  in  just  the  same  way  that  he  did  when  he  was  a 
little  delicate  boy  at  the  old  home  in  Twentieth  Street, 
and  on  those  very  presidential  trips  I  have  seen  him  devour 


CHILDHOOD  37 

'Ferrero,'  'Josephus'  and  similar  works,  while  dele 
gations  would  come  and  go  in  the  train,  with  whom  he 
would  have  short  conversations  and  then  immediately 
absorb  himself  in  his  reading  again. 

"I  can  remember  perfectly  the  feeling  of  We  and 
spirit  with  which  the  whole  house  was  infused  when  he 
came  into  it.  Interesting  as  he  had  been  mentally  as  a 
little  child,  one  had  perhaps  been  over-conscious  of  the 
sense  of  detachment  with  which  his  suffering  had  sur 
rounded  him.  Later,  when  he  was  a  young  man  in  the 
New  York  Assembly,  while  he  could  still  summon  that 
sense  of  detachment  at  will,  and  could  give  one,  if  he  so 
desired,  the  impression  of  being  in  another  world  when 
studying  or  reading — at  other  times  he  was  the  life  and 
spirit  of  the  whole  family  environment,  and  his  work  in 
the  Assembly,  with  its  far-reaching  interest,  was  even  then 
the  pivot  upon  which  the  whole  family  life  turned. 
He  was  then,  as  later,  capable  of  the  most  unflagging 
power  of  achievement,  and  his  reading  was  so  universal, 
and  yet  so  specialized  that  one  could  turn  to  him  as  an 
authority  upon  almost  any  subject. 

"Owing  to  delicacy  in  childhood  he  was  not  able  to  go 
to  a  boarding  school,  and  was  educated,  more  or  less,  by 
tutors,  and  when  my  father  first  settled  at  Oyster  Bay, 
Theodore,  who  was  then  a  boy  of  about  fourteen,  was 
under  the  tutelage  of  Mr.  Arthur  H.  Cutler,  who  later 
formed  the  big  boys'  school  in  New  York  City  and  was 
always  extremely  proud  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  had 
been  his  first  pupil. 

"In  those  early  days  at  Oyster  Bay,  when  he  was 
beginning  to  get  the  benefit  of  his  own  making  of  his  own 
body,  I  remember  him  as  a  great  lover  of  the  water,  but 
only  in  a  very  active  way.  He  never  cared,  as  my 


38  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

brother  Elliot  did,  to  sail  a  boat;  it  might  be  scientific  and 
difficult  to  sail  a  boat,  but  it  wasn't  half  hard  enough  to 
suit  his  tastes.  He  liked  the  smallest  rowboat  that  could 
live  in  the  bay  and  Sound,  and  he  liked  to  row  it  for  miles 
himself,  carrying  it  across  points  or  strips  of  sand,  shoot 
ing  ducks,  taking  long  trips  when  the  waters  were  rough  on 
the  Sound,  when  the  danger  was  sufficiently  exciting  to 
make  it  worth  while  to  keep  the  tiny  boat  straight  in  the 
waves  or  fog.  And  as  he  shot  and  ran  and  rowed  he  grad 
ually  became  a  much  stronger  and  hardier  boy.  He 
always  retained  his  love  of  natural  history,  and  literature 
of  all  sorts  and  kinds. 

"Those  early  days  at  Oyster  Bay  are  perhaps  the  most 
vivid  of  our  childhood,  for  my  father  and  mother  had  a 
wise  attitude  toward  their  children — making  compara 
tively  few  rules,  The  rules  that  were  made  had  to  be 
strictly  kept,  but  otherwise  we  were  given  great  leeway, 
and  were  allowed  to  roam  the  then  exquisite  lanes  of  Long 
Island  at  will  on  horseback,  or  to  spend  long,  happy  holi 
days  on  the  bay  and  Sound. 

"Theodore,  at  this  time,  was  collecting  birds  and  ani 
mals  of  various  kinds,  studying  their  habits,  skinning  and 
stuffing  them  himself,  and  at  tjiat  period  my  father  always 
felt  that  his  taste  for  science -would  probably  be  the  dom 
inant  factor  in  his  life,  although  he  encouraged  the  'stren 
uous  life'  in  every  possible  way,  feeling  that  the  boy's 
body  required  the  boxing  lessons,  the  running  con 
tests  and  the  various  types  of  exercises  in  which  he 
indulged. 

"At  eighteen,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  although  occa 
sionally  suffering  from  his  old  enemy,  was  a  strong  and 
normal  young  man  and  perfectly  able  to  go  into  Harvard 
College  and  hold  his  own  against  any  of  the  light-weight 


CHILDHOOD  39 

boxers  of  that  day,  in  spite  of  being  handicapped,  as  he 
was,  by  near-sightedness  from  the  beginning. 

"Just  about  the  same  time  that  he  entered  college 
he  had  begun  to  take  long  trips  in  the  backwoods  of 
Maine,  under  the  guidance  of  the  two  fine  Maine  lumber 
men — Bill  Sewall  and  Bill  Dow — who  for  so  many  years 
were  a  large  influence  in  his  physical  and  even  his  mental 
life. 

"His  love  of  nature,  accentuated  by  his  knowledge  of 
birds  and  beasts,  was  one  of  the  very  vital  factors  in  his 
whole  life,  for  he  had  that  mixture  of  scientific  interest 
and  pure  delight  in  the  beauty  of  nature  which  rarely 
goes  together.^ 

"When  you  ask  my  impressions  of  my  brother  as  a 
boy  and  a  young  man,  the  qualities  that  stand  out  spe 
cially  before  me  are  those  qualities  which  meant  in  his 
extreme  youth  patience,  concentration  and  determina 
tion,  and,  in  his  maturer  youth,  equal  determination,  equal 
concentration,  but  with  a  greater  physical  power  and 
courage  added  to  those  early  qualities.  There  was  an 
ardor  for  healthfulness,  for  righteousness  and  for  patriotic 
endeavor  which  made  one  visibly  aware  in  coming  in  con 
tact  with  TheodoreRoosevelt  that  here  was  a  great  poten 
tiality  for  the  good  of  the  world." 


CHAPTER  III 

SCHOOL  AND  COLLEGE 

DURING  his  days  as  a  student,  Roosevelt  showed 
no  unusual  aptitude  for  any  study  except  natural 
history.  Speaking  of  his  studies,  he  said  himself, 
"In  science  and  history  and  geography  and  in  unexpected 
parts  of  German  and  French  I  was  strong,  but  lamentably 
weak  in  Latin  and  Greek  and  mathematics."  The 
interest  in  science  and  history  and  geography  which  this 
shows  is  borne  out  by  the  evidence  of  his  later  life,  but 
there  does  not  appear  to  have  been  such  a  strong  inclina 
tion  towards  any  of  these  subjects  as  to  have  justified  an 
observer,  then,  in  prophesying  any  special  kind  of  future 
for  the  boy. 

During  his  boyhood,  his  continual  ill  health  kept  him 
from  regular  attendance  at  school.  For  a  few  months  he 
attended  Professor  McMullen's  School  on  Twentieth 
Street,  near  his  father's  house,  but  most  of  the  time  he  had 
tutors.  One  of  these  tutors,  under  whom  he  prepared  to 
enter  Harvard,  was  Mr.  Arthur  Cutler,  who  later  founded 
the  Cutler  School  in  New  York.  The  result  of  this  absence 
of  regular  schooling  was  that  the  boy  was  left  compara 
tively  free  to  develop  his  mind  according  to  his  own 
inclinations.  With  a  strong  interest  in  animals,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  natural  history  captivated  his  attention 
at  an  early  age. 

His  career  as  a  zoologist  began  when,  one  day,  as  a 
small  boy,  he  was  walking  up  Broadway  past  one  of  the 
city  markets.  Outside  the  market  lay  a  dead  seal  on  a 

(40) 


SCHOOL  AND   COLLEGE  41 

slab  of  wood.  He  had  been  reading  about  seals  in  Mayne 
Reid's  books,  and  the  sight  of  this  one  so  close  to  him 
instantly  filled  him  with  a  sense  of  romance  and  adventure 
widen  was  increased  when  he  learned  that  the  animal  had 
just  been  killed  in  New  York  Harbor.  He  became  pos 
sessed  with  a  longing  to  own  the  seal.  Being  unable  to 
form  or  execute  any  plan  for  satisfying  that  longing,  he 
contented  himself  with  visiting  the  market  day  by  day  to 
gaze  upon  the  object  which  proved  so  interesting  to  him. 
He  took  the  seal's  measurements  carefully  with  a  folding 
pocket  rule  and  had  considerable  difficulty  when  he  came 
to  measuring  its  girth.  Somehow  or  other  he  got  the 
animal's  skull  and  with  it  he  and  two  of  his  cousins  im 
mediately  founded  the  Roosevelt  Museum  of  Natural 
History.  At  the  same  time  his  observations  of  the  seal 
and  the  measurements  which  he  had  made  of  it  were  care 
fully  set  down  in  a  blank  book  purchased  for  the  purpose. 

In  another  blank  book  were  recorded  further  observa 
tions  in  natural  history.  This  work  was  entitled,  "  Natural 
History  on  Insects,  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Jr.,"  and 
began  in  this  fashion:  "All  these  insects  are  native  of 
North  America.  Most  of  the  insects  are  not  in  other 
books.  I  will  write  about  ants  first." 

The  beginning  of  the  treatise  on  ants  is  entertaining, 
if  not  deeply  scientific.  "Ants,"  he  writes,  "are  difided 
into  three  sorts  for  every  species.  These  kinds  are  officer, 
soilder  [soldier?]  and  work.  There  are  about  one  officer 
to  ten  soilders  and  one  soilder  to  two  workers."  The  book 
then  went  on  to  describe  other  insects  which  he  had 
observed,  all  of  \vhich  he  assured  the  reader  "inhabit 
North  America."  At  the  end  of  the  volume  on  insects 
were  a  few  notes  on  fishes/  Among  these  was  a  description 
of  the  crayfish.  "I  need  not  describe  the  form  of  the 


42  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

crayfish  to  you,"  wrote  the  author.  "Look  at  the  lobster 
and  you  have  its  form."  These*  observations  were 
recorded  at  the  age  of  nine  years,  and  are  w^orth  mention 
ing  because  they  show  a  real  interest  in  the  creatures  of 
which  he  was  writing. 

Roosevelt's  father  encouraged  /his  study  of  natural 
history  and,  finding  him  absorbed!  in  a  book  of  Mayne 
Reid's  on  mammals,  which  way  thrilling  but  not  very 
accurate,  presented  the  boy  with  a  little  book  by  J.  G. 
Wood,  the  English  naturalist,  called  "Homes  without 
Hands."  This  was  a  real  step  towards  the  attainment  of 
scientific  knowledge.  His  father  also,  when  he  was  about 
thirteen,  sent  him  to  take  lessons  in  taxidermy  from  an 
old  friend  of  Audubon's,  named  Bell,  who  kept  a  musty 
little  shop  which  the  pupil  later  likened  to  Mr.  Venus' 
shop  in  "Our  Mutual  Friend."  The  study  of  taxidermy, 
of  course,  inspired  the  boy  with  a  desire  to  procure  his 
own  specimens  and  his  father  consequently  presented  him 
with  a  gun  for  that  purpose. 

When  he  first  tried  to  use  this  gun,  he  was  puzzled  to 
find  that  he  could  not  see  the  objects  at  which  his  com 
panions  were  shooting.  One  day,  some  boys  with  him 
read  aloud  an  advertisement  written  in  huge  letters  on  a 
bill -board  some  distance  away,  and  Theodore  then  realized, 
for  the  first  time,  that  there  must  be  something  the  matter 
with  his  eyes,  because  he  could  not  see  the  letters.  His 
father  soon  got  him  a  pair  of  spectacles  which  he  says 
literally  opened  up  a  new  world  to  him. 

When  he  was  fourteen,  he  had  become  sufficiently 
interested  in  the  study  of  natural  history  to  get  several 
new  books  on  the  subject,  and  to  make  a  more  careful 
study  of  it.  In  the  winter  of  1872  and  1873  the  family 
visited  the  Old  World  for  the  second  time,  and,  among 


SCHOOL  AND   COLLEGE  43 

other  expeditions,  took  a  trip  up  the  Nile.  Before  they 
started  on  this  trip  he  picked  up  in  Cairo  a  book  which 
contained  some  account  of  the  birds  of  that  region. 
Armed  with  this  book,  and  with  the  gun  which  his  father 
had  given  him,  he  secured  a  number  of  specimens  of  birds 
in  Egypt,  which,  together  with  others  procured  later  in 
Palestine,  he  subsequently  presented  to  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  in  Washington  and  to  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History  in  New  York.  The  fun  of  collecting 
was  no  doubt  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  before  leaving 
home  he  and  his  two  cousins,  his  fellow-directors  of  the 
Roosevelt  Museum,  had  printed  a  set  of  museum  labels 
in  pink  ink,  expressly  for  use  upon  this  expedition. 

Unfortunately  for  the  rest  of  the  family,  Theodore 
insisted  on  carrying  his  natural  history  specimens  about 
with  him  from  place  to  place.  One  day  when  the  family 
was  in  Vienna,  his  brother  Elliot  inquired  plaintively  of 
their  father  whether  it  would  be  possible  that  he  should 
now  and  then  have  a  room  to  himself  in  the  hotels,  instead 
of  being  obliged  always  to  share  one  with  Theodore.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  perfectly  willing  to  comply,  but  inquired 
the  reason  for  Elliot's  request.  Elliot  said,  "Come  and 
see  our  room,  and  you  will  understand."  When  they 
reached  the  boys'  room,  they  found  bottles  of  taxider 
mist's  supplies  everywhere  and  in  the  basin  the  remains 
of  specimens  which  Theodore  had  lately  captured. 
Theodore  himself  records  the  fact  that  he  was  "grubby." 
"I  suppose,"  he  says,  "that  all  growing  boys  tend  to  be 
grubby;  but  the  ornithological  small  boy,  or  indeed  the 
boy  with  the  taste  for  natural  history  of  any  kind,  is 
generally  the  very  grubbiest  of  all." 

Some  years  before  this  expedition,  his  grandfather 
Roosevelt  had  made  his  summer  home  in  Oyster  Bay,  on 


44  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Long  Island  Sound,  and  his  father's  two  brothers  had 
also  regularly  rented  country  places  there  during  the 
summer.  Upon  their  return  from  Europe,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Sr.,  also  made  Oyster  Bay  the  summer  home 
of  his  family.  This  gave  the  young  naturalist  increased 
opportunity  for  exploring  trips  and  for  observations.  He 
did  nothing  which  had  any  profound  scientific  significance, 
but  he  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  what  was  to  him  an 
interesting,  and  profitable  pursuit,  and  laid  the  founda 
tion  for  a  large  part  of  the  pleasure  of  his  subsequent  life. 

One  more  story  of  his  boyhood  should  be  related  before 
leaving  the  subject  of  natural  history.  One  of  his  sisters 
has  told  how,  when  he  was  a  very  small  boy  in  petticoats 
with  his  hair  in  a  curl  on  the  top  of  his  head,  he  dragged 
down  from  the  book-shelf  a  huge  volume  describing  David 
Livingstone's  life  in  the  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent,  and 
held  it  on  his  lap.  But  this  time  it  was  not  big  game  that 
little  Theodore  found.  His  sister  said  he  struck  something 
he  did  not  understand.  Clasping  the  big  book  in  his  short 
arms,  he  went  from  one  to  another  to  get  light  on  a  dark 
passage.  After  some  effort  he  found  a  friend  not  too  busy 
at  the  moment  to  listen  to  him.  "What  are  'foraging* 
ants?"  he  asked.  Of  course  no  one  in  the  family  could 
give  the  required  information  off-hand.  On  investigation 
it  was  discovered  that  the  baby  naturalist  had  made  a 
mistake  in  his  reading.  Livingstone  had  referred  to  "the 
foregoing  ants."  It  was  not  much  easier  to  make  a  child 
in  petticoats  understand  what  "foregoing"  ants  might 
be.  But  that  is  the  problem  confronting  older  sisters  in 
many  a  family  where  there  is  a  small  boy  with  an  inquiring 
mind. 

Of  reading  young  Theodore  was  very  fond,  although 
he  did  not  show  any  marked  sign  of  genius  in  the  matter 


SCHOOL  AND    COLLEGE  45 

and  manner  of  his  reading.  All  of  the  children  were 
devoted  to  the  magazine  called,  "Our  Young  Folks," 
which  the  Colonel,  years  afterward,  said  he  really  believed 
he  enjoyed  going  over  then  as  much  as  wrhen  he  was  a 
small  boy.  This  magazine  taught  him  much  more  than 
any  of  his  text-books,  and  everything  in  it  instilled  the 
individual  virtues  and  the  necessity  of  character  as  the 
chief  factor  in  any  man's  success.  He  also  has  recorded 
his  fondness  for  girls'  stories,  such  as  "Little  Men," 
"Little  Women,"  and  "An  Old-Fashioned  Girl." 

After  the  trip  up  the  Nile,  in  the  winter  of  1873,  the 
younger  children  were  left  to  spend  the  summer  in 
Dresden  in  the  house  of  Herr  Minckwitz,  an  old  gentleman 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  German  revolution  of  1848. 
To  this  experience  Roosevelt  looked  back  with  delight  in 
later  years.  The  kindness  of  the  family  and  the  fascina 
tion  of  the  two  sons,  who  were  dueling  students  from  the 
University  of  Leipzig,  made  a  deep  impression  on  him. 
One  of  the  sons  was  known  in  dueling  circles  as  the  "Red 
Duke,"  and  the  other  as  "Sir  Rhinoceros"  because  the 
tip  of  his  nose  had  been  cut  off  in  a  duel  and  sewn  on  again. 
During  his  visit  in  Germany  Roosevelt  acquired  a  fairly 
good  speaking  knowledge  of  German,  and  a  real  fondness 
for  German  poetry.  The  impression  which  he  gained  of 
German  character  and  German  family  life  was  still  strong 
upon  him  when  he  wrote  of  it  forty  years  later. 

During  all  this  time,  until  he  was  about  fifteen  years 
old,  the  boy  was  not  strong.  His  asthma  troubled  him 
incessantly,  deprived  him  of  sleep,  and  made  violent 
exercise  difficult  and  sometimes  impossible.  During  one 
of  his  attacks  of  asthma  he  was  sent  off  by  himself  to 
Moosehead  Lake,  in  Maine.  On  the  stage-coach  he  met 
a  couple  of  other  boys  of  his  own  age,  who  were  not 


46  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

troubled  with  ill  health,  and  who  were  determined  to 
annoy  Theodore.  He  finally  became -so  exasperated  that 
he  tried  to  fight  his  tormenters,  only  to  discover  that 
either  one  of  them  could  easily  handle  him  without  even 
the  necessity  of  hurting  him.  This  was  £  considerable 
blow  to  his  pride,  and  was  the  immediate  y6ause  which  led 
to  his  taking  boxing  lessons  from  Jonti  Kong,  an  ex-prize 
fighter,  in  New  York.  Long  used  to  h$ld  "championship 
matches"  for  the  different  weights  in  order  to  stimulate 
interest  among  his  patrons,  and  young  Roosevelt  was 
fortunate  enough  to  win  in  one  of  these  contests,  a  pewter 
mug,  which  he  cherished  and  boasted  about  for  some 
years  afterwards. 

About  this  time,  also,  he  began  to  visit  the  Maine 
woods  regularly  every  summer  and  sometimes  in  the 
winter.  There  he  walked,  paddled  and  hunted  small 
game,  partly  from  a  love  of  the  sport  and  of  outdoors, 
and  partly  from  an  earnest  determination  to  acquire 
health  at  the  cost  of  no  matter  what  effort.  His  com 
panions  in  these  excursions  were  two  woodsmen  named 
Bill  Sewall  and  Bill  Dow,  between  whom  and  Roosevelt 
there  grew  up  a  strong  affection.  Thirty  years  later 
Sewall,  as  collector  of  customs  on  the  Aroostook  border, 
served  under  his  old  companion,  who  had  become  President 
of  the  United  States. 

Roosevelt  went  to  Harvard  in  the  fall  of  1876  and 
became  a  member  of  the  class  of  1880.  Among  his  class 
mates  were  a  goodly  number  of  men  who  later  rose  to 
prominence,  and  some  who  became  national  figures. 
Among  the  latter  were  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  the  historian ; 
Josiah  Quincy,  who  became  Assistant  Secretary  of  State,* 
and  Robert  Bacon,  who  later  was  Secretary  of  State  and 
Ambassador  to  France.  One  of  his  closest  friends  in  after 


SCHOOL  AND   COLLEGE  47 

life  was  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  then  an  instructor  in  history 
and  now  United  States  Senator  from  Massachusetts. 

The  young  collegian  soon  became  a  familiar  figure 
in  Cambridge  and  Boston — especially  in  Brookline — driv 
ing  about  in  a  sort  of  sporting  phaeton,  then  the  height  of 
the  New  York  style  in  equipages.  He  had  not  yet  taken 
up  horseback  riding  as  a  regular  exercise.  Though  he 
was  especially  fond  of  boxing  and  other  vigorous  sports, 
he  astonished  his  student  friends  by  skipping  the  rope. 
When  he  had  explained  that  he  engaged  in  this  strange 
exercise  because  it  strengthens  the  muscles  of  the  legs 
and  ankles,  startled  Cambridge  saw  college  students  skip 
ping  rope  like  school  girls. 

His  defective  sight  and  his  glasses  were  a  handicap  in 
boxing,  baseball  and  kindred'  sports.  But  he  boxed 
often — for  the  exercise  and  the  physical  discipline.  He 
was  still  pale  and  thin,  weighing  only  one  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds.  So  he  was  rather  dubious  looking,  even 
for  a  lightweight.  His  friends  used  to  tell  of  an  encounter 
he  had,  which  especially  illustrates  his  temper.  He  came 
into  the  ring  with  a  huge  pair  of  eyeglasses  tied  tight  to 
his  head.  At  the  end  of  a  lively  round,  time  was  called  and 
Roosevelt  quickly  dropped  his  hands  to  his  side.  But  his 
opponent  dealt  him  a  smashing  blow  between  the  eyes, 
covering  the  motionless  lightweight's  face  with  blood. 

"Foul! — foul!"  cried  the  onlookers,  and  their  angry 
protests  showed  that  it  might  have  gone  hard  with  the 
other  boxer.  But  Roosevelt  rushed  to  the  referee, 
shouting: 

"Stop  stop!— He  didn't  hear!— He  didn't  hear!" 

On  another  occasion  he  entered  the  college  lightweight 
boxing  contest.  After  winning  the  preliminary  round  he 
was  pitted  against  a  master  of  the  art  named  Hanks,  who 


48  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

defeated  him.  "It  was  no  fight  at  all,"  said  one  of  the 
spectators  afterward.  "Hanks  had^he  longer  reach  and 
was  stronger,  and  Roosevelt  was  handicapped  by  his 
eyesight.  I  can  see  that  little  fellow  yet,  staggering  about 
and  banging  into  air.  His  opponent  could  not  put  him 
out  and  he  would  not  give  up.  He  showed  his  fighting 
qualities,  but  he  never  entered  another  bout." 

His  closest  associates  at  college  were  the  members  of 
the  wealthy  and  cultured  New  York  and  Boston  families. 
One  of  his  classmates  who  has  himself  risen  to  a  high  place 
in  his  profession  has  told  me  that  young  Roosevelt  was 
distinctly  one  of  the  "exclusive  set;"  that,  though  he 
was  liked  by  most  of  those  who  came  to  know  him,  he 
had  not  at  that  time  broken  through  the  limitations 
of  his  birth.  This  means-  that  his  intense  interest  in  the 
points  of  view  of  different  classes  and  his  ability  to  know 
and  appreciate  the  best  in  a  man,  irrespective  of  his 
education  or  wordly  condition,  which  became  the 
marked  and  charming  side  of  his  character,  was  only  fully 
developed  after  he  left  college  and  began  to  lay  hold 
on  life  for  himself. 

While  he  was  at  college  Roosevelt  taught  a  Sunday- 
school  class  at  an  Episcopal  church,  although  he  was  not 
an  Episcopalian  He  wrote  of  this  later  and  added,  "I  do 
not  think  I  made  much  of  a  success  of  it. "  One  of  the 
boys  came  to  class  one  day  with  a  black  eye.  The  teacher 
was  concerned  at  once.  The  lad  explained  that  another 
boy  had  pinched  his  little  sister  and  that  he  had  acquired 
his  black  eye  in  an  effort  to  resent  the  insult.  This  course 
of  conduct  met  with  the  teacher's  entire  approval,  which 
he  signified  by  bestowing  a  dollar  on  the  battle-scarred 
pupil. 

Later  he  was  removed  from  his  position  of  Sunday- 


SCHOOL  AND   COLLEGE  49 

school  teacher  by  the  rector  of  the  church  because  he  was 
not  a  confirmed  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  But  he 
did  not  appear  to  cherish  any  grudge  against  the  denomi 
nation  whose  minister  had  thus  summarily  ousted  him, 
for  he  turned  up  next  week  in  an  Episcopal  Sunday-school 
in  East  Cambridge,  and  later  taught  in  one  at  Chestnut 
Hill. 

What  people  sometimes  describe  as  his  thoughtless 
impulsiveness  and  disregard  for  appearances  was  illus 
trated  by  another  story  of  his  college  days.  Late  one 
rainy  night  four  students  who  lived  in  the  house  with  him 
heard  a  horse  neighing  frantically  in  a  barn  nearby.  They 
dressed  and  went  out  in  the  dark  to  explore.  When  they 
reached  the  barn  they  found  Roosevelt  already  there, 
half -clothed  and  minus  his  almost  indispensable  spectacles, 
struggling  to  release  the  horse's  leg  from  a  hole  in  the  side 
of  the  stall.  Perhaps  closer  observation  will  show  that 
though  Roosevelt  certainly  had  little  regard  for  conven 
tional  appearances,  his  supposed  impulsiveness  was  due 
to  his  ability  to  think  and  act  with  unusual  quickness  in 
emergencies. 

It  is  of  course  interesting  to  see  how  early  a  distin 
guished  man  has  developed  the  tastes  or  characteristics 
which  give  him  his  distinction.  If  we  should  pursue  this 
line  of  inquiry  in  Roosevelt's  case  we  should  get  little 
information  from  his  college  career.  A  good  deal  of  lati 
tude  was  allowed  the  students  in  the  matter  of  selecting 
their  studies,  although  certain  courses  were  prescribed  for 
all.  When  it  came  to  these  electives,  Roosevelt  devoted 
one-half  of  them  to  natural  history,  but  not  a  single  one 
to  history.  In  history  and  English  literature  he  took  only 
what  was  required  of  him  and  nothing  more,  and  yet,  in 
his  later  years,  he  was  a  writer  of  history  and  an  eager 

4 


50  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

reader  of  the  best  literature.  He  took  no  interest  in 
elocution  or  in  debating,  although -he  became  afterward  a 
forceful  and  convincing  public  speaker. 

He  joined,  of  course,  with  others  in  the  conduct  of 
such  organizations  as  the  Finance  Club  and  the  "0.  K.," 
before  whom  papers  were  prepared  and  lectures  delivered 
on  economic  and  political  questions.  In  the  fall  of  1880 
he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  polls  for  the  taking  of  a  straw 
vote  among  the  students  during  the  campaign  which  cul 
minated  in^  the  election  of  Garfield,  and  is  said  to  have 
cast  his  own  vote  for  Senator  Bayard,  a  Democrat.  Ac 
cording  to  the  Harvard  Advocate,  the  undergraduate  lit 
erary  paper  of  the  period,  "The  gentleman  in  charge  of 
the  polls  is  a  proof  that  the  movement  is  not  one  of  idle 
curiosity,  but  of  earnest  purpose." 

The  most  ambitious  Wrk  of  his  college  life  was  the 
writing  of  "The  Nava^War  of  1812."  He  began  this  in 
his  senior  year  and  published  the  work  two  years  later. 
It  was  recognized  as  an  authority  on  the  subject,  and 
brought  from  the  British  authors  of  the  "History  of  the 
Royal  Navy"  a  request  that  he  should  write  for  them  the 
chapter  of  their  work  dealing  with  the  War  of  1812. 

During  all  this  time  he  had  become  more  and  more 
deeply  interested  in  Miss  Alice  Hathaway  Lee,  a  young 
lady  who  lived  in  Chestnut  Hill,  which  is  a  pleasant  suburb 
of  Boston.  During  his  sophomore  year  he  was  a  student 
in  rhetoric  under  Professor  Adams  Sherman  Hill.  One 
day  Hill  was  reading  to  his  class  a  theme  to  which  he  ob 
jected  because  it  was  over-romantic.  In  the  middle  of  his 
reading  he  paused  and  suddenly  asked  Roosevelt  to 
criticise  the  essay.  The  young  man  hesitated,  and  the 
professor  then  asked  him  specifically,  "Mr.  Roosevelt, 
what  do  you  think  of  an  undergraduate  falling  in  love?" 


SCHOOL  AND   COLLEGE  51 

Roosevelt,  blushing  furiously,  made  no  answer,  and  so  his 
secret  was  out.  The  culmination  of  this  affair  was  his 
engagement  to  Miss  I^e  and  their  marriage  on  his  twenty- 
second  birthday,  sUiew  months  after  he  had  graduated 
from  college. 

He  was  graduated  from  the  college  department  in  the 
spring  of  1880,  having  acquired  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Key 
for  proficiency  in  scholarship,  a  number  of  interesting 
friends  and  a  determination  to  succeed.  He  said  him 
self:  "I  left  college  and  entered  the  big  world  owing 
more  than  I  can  express  to  the  training  I  had  received, 
especially  in  my  home,  but  with  much  else  also  to  learn 
if  I  were  to  become  fitted  to  do  my  part  in  the  work  that 
lay  ahead  for  the  generation  of  Americans  to  which  I 
belonged.' ' 

His  sister,  Mrs.  Robinson,  writes  of  him  at  this  time: 
"His  college  life  broadened  every  interest  and  did  for 
him  what  had  hitherto  not  been  done,  which  was  to  give 
him  confidence  in  his  relationship  with  young  men  of  his 
own  age.  Up  to  that  time,  owing  to  his  delicacy  of  health, 
he  had  been  somewhat  of  a  recluse,  from  the  standpoint 
of  relationship  of  boy  to  boy." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  father  died  the  9th 
of  February,  1878,  \&hij£  his  son  was  a  sophomore 
at  Harvard.     The  lo$/of  such  a  father,  especially 
at  a  period  of  his  life  when  he  needed  him  most,  was  in  a 
sense  irreparable.     It  was  his  first  great  sorrow.     It  also 
modified  the  immediate  course  of  his  life,  throwing  on 
him  the  responsibilities  of  a  man. 

The  father  and  son  had  often  talked  over  the  boy's 
future  course  in  life.  The  younger  Theodore  had  been 
brought  up  with  the  distinct  idea  that  he  was  expected  to 
work.  His  father,  though  he  had  inherited  a  consider 
able  fortune,  had  worked  hard  all  his  life,  and  he  expected 
his  son  to  do  likewise.  On  entering  college,  the  son's 
ambition  had  been  to  devote  his  life  to  natural  history. 
His  father  had  told  him  that  he  could  do  so,  provided  he 
took  up  scientific  work  in  a  serious  manner,  but  that  if 
he  was  not  going  to  earn  money,  he  must  "even  things 
up  by  not  spending  it."  If  he  was  to  be  a  scientist,  his 
fortune  would  not  be  sufficient  to  do  more  than  live  quietly 
and  comfortably. 

He  would  probably  have  persisted  in  a  scientific  career, 
at  least  for  some  time  after  leaving  college,  had  it  not  been 
that  the  course  of  instruction  at  Harvard,  as  in  all  Amer 
ican  colleges  at  that  time,  d/scouraged  any  work  that  was 
not  done  in  a  laboratory/  Instead  of  encouraging  his 
taste  for  field  work,  tney  treated  biology  as  purely  a 
"closet"  science,  and  required  him  to  spend  his  time  in 
the  study  of  minute  forms  of  marine  life  or  else  in  section- 

(52) 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS      53 

cutting  and  the  study  of  the  tissues  of  the  higher  organisms 
under  the  microscope.  He  tells  us  that  he  had  no  more 
desire  or  ability  to  to  be  a  microscopist  and  section-cutter 
than  he  had  to  be  a  mathematician.  If  he  had  to  work 
with  these  things  to  be  a  scientist,  then  he  would  have  to 
choose  some  other  path  in  life. 

After  his  marriage,  on  October  27,  1880,  he  went  to 
Europe.  While  in  Switzerland  he  climbed  the  Jungfrau 
and  the  Matterhorn,  sufficiently  rare  feats  for  those  days 
to  enable  him  to  qualify  as  a  member  of  the  Alpine  Club. 
On  his  return  he  and  his  wife  took  up  their  residence  in 
New  York  and  the  young  college  graduate  began  to  study 
law.  His  legal  studies,  however,  did  not  last  long.  He 
believed  himself  that  had  he  come  in  contact  with  some 
great  professor  of  law,  dike*  the  late  Professor  Thayer  of 
the  Harvard  Law  SchocJ,  who  had  an  understanding  of 
social  conditions  as  well  as  technical  legal  knowledge,  he 
might  have  continued  and  become  a  member  of  the  Bar. 
I  doubt,  however,  whether  he  would  ever  have  been  a  good 
lawyer,  in  spite  of  his  ability  to  follow  and  grasp  a  legal 
argument,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  he  was  temperament 
ally  unfitted  to  be  happy  performing  the  ordinary  services 
of  the  lawyer.  As  it  was,  it  did  not  seem  to  him  that  the 
law  was  framed  to  discourage,  as  it  should,  sharp  practice, 
and  all  other  kinds  of  bargains  except  those  which  were 
fair  and  of  benefit  to  both  sides.  "I  was  young,"  he 
tells  us.  "There  was  much  in  the  judgment  which  I 
then  formed  on  this  matter  which  I  should  now  revise; 
but,_then  as  now,  many  of  the  big  corporation  lawyers,  to 
whom  the  ordinary  members  of  the  Bar  then,  as  now, 
looked  up,  held  certain  standards  which  were  difficult  to 
recognize  as  compatible  with  the  idealism  I  suppose  every 
high-minded  young  man  is  apt  to  feel." 


54  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

If  he  had  been  obliged  to  earn  his  living,  though,  he 
would  probably  not  have  continue*!  in  the  study  of  law; 
he  would  have  devoted  all  his  energies  to  making  both 
ends  meet,  for  he  always  held  the  belief,  "that  a  man's 
first  duty  is  to  pull  his  own  string  and  to  take  care  of  those 
dependent  upon  him.' '  But  his  father  had  left  him  enough 
money  to  make  it  unnecessary  f0r  him  to  earn  the  neces 
saries  of  life,  and  so,  in  abariddning  the  study  of  law  he 
became  absorbed  in  politics,  ^and  in  the  work  necessary 
to  complete  his  "History  of  the  American  Navy  in  the 
War  of  1812." 

As  stated,  he  graduated  from  college  in  1880,  and 
spent  most  of  the  tfirs^  year  thereafter  abroad;  and 
yet,  in  the  fall  of  !&#»  he  was  elected  as  a  member  of 
the  Assembly,  or  lower  House  of  the  New  York  Legis 
lature,  the  youngest  member  of  that  body.  Re-elected  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year,  and  still  the  youngest  man  in  the 
Legislature,  he  became  the  nominee  of  the  minority,  or 
Republican,  party  for  speaker.  Re-elected  again  for  a 
third  term,  in  the  fall  of  1883,  though  defeated  for  the 
speakership,  he  became  floor  leader.  This  is  a  remarkable 
record.  ,1  do  not  know  that  the  records  of  any  of  our  states 
show  an  equally  rapid  rise  to  prominence  of  a  young  man 
between  twenty-three  and  twenty-six  years  of  age. 

His  election  to  the  Assembly  and  his  success  as  a 
member  were  due  not  so  much  to  his  ability,  though  of 
course  without  ability  he  could  have  accomplished  little, 
ias  to  traits  of  character  and  points  of  view.  On  gradua 
tion  from  college  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would 
take  an  interest  in  politics,  and  when  he  settled  in  New 
York  he  at  once  proceeded  to  put  the  resolution  in  effect 
by  making  inquiries  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  local 
Republican  Association,  and  the  means  of  joining  it.  The 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS      55 

fact  that  the  persons  of  his  own  social  set  who  lived  near 
him  laughed  at  him  and  told  him  that  politics  were  low, 
and  that  the  organization  was  controlled  not  by  gentle 
men  but  by  saloon-keepers,  horse-car  conductors  and  the 
like  did  not  deter  him  in  the  least.  He  expressed  his  atti 
tude  of  mind  to  a  protesting  relative,  "If  the  people  who 
run  these  organizations,  whoever  they  are,  are  the  govern 
ing  class,  then  I  propose  to  be  one  of  the  governing  class.' ' 

Neither  the  resolution  to  become  a  member  of  the  Dis^j 
trict  Association  of  his  party,  nor  membership,  itself  would 
have  gotten  him  into  politics,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
fact  that,  unlike  many  persons  of  his  birth  and  education, 
it  never  occurred  to  him  that  he  was  going  into  politics  to 
obtain  reform  for  the  community,  as  if  reform  was  a  con 
crete  substance  like  a  cake;  neither  did  it  occur  to  him 
that  he  was  joining  the  organization  for  the  purpose  of 
doing  good  to  a  collection  of  ignorant  and  benighted  per 
sons.  Not  that  he  had  not  ideals — he  had  ideals;  but 
he  joined  the  District  Association  of  his  party  because 
he  wanted  to  get  into  the  game,  and  exercise  what  he 
regarded  as  the  right  of  every  American,  the  right  to 
take  part,  though  it  may  be  but  a  small  and  humble  part, 
in  governing  the  country.  The  District  Association  met 
in  Morton  Hall,  a  large,  barnlike  room  over  a  saloon. 
Roosevelt  came  to  the  meeting  just  as  the  other  members 
came,  because  he  wanted  to  come,  and  not  with  any  pat 
ronizing  ideas  of  doing  good.  Being  a  hearty,  likable 
fellow,  they  soon  began  to  like  and  respect  him. 

The  relationship  I  have  described  being  once  estab 
lished,  his  birth,  his  education,  his  refinement,  told  polit 
ically  in  his  favor  not  against  him.  Every  rich  and 
"carefully"  brought  up  young  man  in  America  who  now 
may  be  wondering  how  he  can  get  into  politics  can  have 


56  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  same  experience,  if  he  has  young  Roosevelt's  point 
of  view  toward  the  politicians,  sal octa  -keepers  and  hangers- 
on  at  Morton  Hall,  in  the  Twenty-first  Assembly  District 
of  New  York. 

For  the  reasons  just  expressed,  his  opportunity  for 
election  to  public  office  would  have  come  eventually;  but 
it  probably  would  not  have  come  as  quickly  as  it  did  had  it 
not  been  for  the  circumstance  that  one  Joseph  Murray, 
the  local  political  leader,  determined  to  defeat  the  candi 
date  selected  by  the  then  political  boss  of  the  district,  Jake 
Hess.  Murray  picked  Roosevelt  as  a  fellowT  candidate. 
He  picked  him  because  he  believed  that  with  Roosevelt 
he  was  most  likely  to  win.  He  did  win,  and  Roosevelt  wras 
nominated.  Jake  Hess  had  no  hard  feeling,  and  Joe  and 
Jake  started  in  to  elect  the  nominee.  Their  first  idea  was 
to  take  the  candidate  through/the  saloons  in  the  district. 
The  first  saloon-keeper  visited  assumed  the  attitude  of 
dictating  to  the  candidate,  ivith  the  object  of  pledging  his 
vote  for  a  reduction  of  the  amount  of  the  liquor  license. 
Roosevelt  flatly  told  thg/man  that  he  believed  the  charge 
for  the  license  should  be  increased,  and  a  hot  altercation 
was  about  to  take  place  when  his  two  mentors  on  some 
excuse,  grabbed  the  young  candidate  and  took  him  out 
into  the  street.  After  that,  they  recommended  him  to 
seek  votes  on  Fifth  Avenue,  and  they  would  attend  to  the 
election  on  Sixth  Avenue,  the  saloon  quarter.  This 
arrangement  worked  out  satisfactorily  and  the  candi 
date  was  triumphantly  elected. 

In  the  Legislature  he  found  those  conditions  which 
were  typical  of  conditions  in  most  of  our  state  legisla 
tures  at  the  time,  and  which  with  some  modifications  may 
be  found  today.  The  majority  of  the  members  were  per 
sonally  honest,  though  many  of  them  allowed  their  per- 


Fl 


B». 

^  o    >0 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE   INTO  POLITICS      57 

sonal  judgment  to  be  controlled  by  the  local  boss,  to  whom  j 
they  owed  their  election.  There  were  a  few  men  of  high  / 
purpose,  courage  and  capacity  for  self-sacrifice,  and,  on/ 
the  other  hand,  there  were  what  was  known  as  the  \ 
Black  Horse  Cavalry,  the  men  who  were  thoroughly 
corrupt,  and  who  largely  looked  upon  their  position 
in  the  Legislature  as  an  opportunity  to  secure  money 
from  corporations  interested  in  passing  or  defeating  bills. 
Roosevelt's  associates  in  the  Legislature  were  Isaac 
Hunt,  Jonas  van  Duzer,  Walter  Howe  and  Henry  Sprague, 
whom  he  regarded  as  his  closest  friends  and  allies,  as  well, 
as  "a  gigantic  one-eyed  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  a  gallant 
general,  Curtis,  from  St.  Lawrence  County,"  and  also, 
among  the  Democrats,  Hampden  Robb,  Thomas  Newbold 
and  Tom  WTelch  of  Niagara,  as  well  as  a  couple  of  members 
from  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  Mike  Costello  and  Pete 
Kelly.  With  the  aid  of/some  or  all  of  these  men,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  securing  the  enactment  of  a  Civil  Service  Law. 
;  He  secured  an  investigation  of  the  county  offices  of  the 
state,  by  which  it  was  discovered  that  the  principal  offi 
cials  in  New  York  County  "were  drawing  nearly  a  million 
dollars  a  year  in  fees,  while  discharging  no  duties  what 
ever  ;£  he  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the  abuse  of  police 
powers  and  secured  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  of 
the  state  taking  fronrthe  aldermen  of  New  York  City  the 
executive  power  and  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  the  mayor. 
The  last  was  a  most  important  reform  recommended  by 
a  committee  of  which  he  was  chairman,  appointed  to  look 
into  various  phases  of  New  York  City  official  life.  -"As 
chairman,  Roosevelt's  energy  and  fearlessness  enabled  him 
to  expose  many  of  the  corrupt  practices  then  existing,  thus 
arousing  public  sentimental  favor  of  concentrating  power 
and  responsibility  in  the  mayor.  At  the  time  the  mayor's 


58  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

appointments  had  to  be  confirmed  by  the  alderman.  The 
bill  recommended  by  the  committee  took  away  this  power. 
Roosevelt,  throughout  his  life,  always  believed  in  the 
policy  of  this  measure.  He  believed  that  the  people  should 
elect  a  few  officials  and  hold  them  responsible;  that  it  is 
impossible  to  get  citizens  interested  in  the  character  and 
ability  of  subordinate  officials  and  that,  therefore,  subor 
dinate  officials  should  be  appointed,  not  elected.  Of  the 
particular  measure  recommended  by  his  committee,  he 
said,  "Taking  away  the  confirming  power  of  the  board  of 
aldermen  would  not  give  the  citizens  of  New  York  good 
government.  We  knew  that  if  they  chose  to  elect  the 
wrong  kind  of  mayor  they  would  have  bad  government, 
no  matter  what  the  form  of  law  was.  But  we  did  secure 
to  them  the  chance  to  get  good  government  if  they 
desired,  and  this  was  impossible  as  long  as  the  old, system 
remained." 

S  The  important  result  of  his  three  years'  experience  in 
the  Legislature,  however,  Fas  not  so  much  the  legislation 
he  succeeded  in  having  adopted,  but  the  results  of  his 
experiences  on  himself.  He  learned  the  invaluable  lesson 
that  in  important  activities  of  life  no  man  can  render  the 
highest  service  unless  he  can  act  in  combination  with  his 
fellows,  which  means  a  certain  amount  of  "give  and  take." 
In  other  words,  he  passed  through  the  phase  of  complete 
independence,  that  is,  the  acting  on  each  case  as  he  per 
sonally  viewed  it,  without  paying  any  heed  to  the  prin 
ciples  and  prejudices  of  others.  The  resulting  loss  of  any 
power  of  accomplishing  anything  at  all  soon  taught  him 
his  mistake.  Again,  he  learned  the  equally  valuable  les 
son,  that  the  man  in  public  life  loses  the  power  to  accom 
plish  any  good  at  all  if  he  falls  into  the  habit  of  looking 
ahead  to  ascertain  the  effect  of  his  present  action  on  his 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE   INTO  POLITICS      59 

future  political  career.^\He  tells  us  that  at  one  period  he 
began  to  believe  that  he  had  a  future,  and  that  it  behooved 
him  to  be  very  farsighted  and  "scan  each  action  carefully 
with  a  view  to  its  possible  effect  on  that  future.' '  "This," 
he  adds,  "speedily  made  me  useless  to  the  public  and  an 
object  of  aversion  to  myself." 

It  is  probable  that,  like  most  young  men,  he  had  gone 
to  the  Assembly  believing  that  all  the  reputable  men  he 
knew,  friends  of  his  father /and  his  family,  really  believed 
in  good  government,  and /were  opposed  to  corruption  in 
politics.  His  awakening  to  the  knowledge  that  this 
assumption  was  false  was  as  much  of  a  shock  to  him  as  it 
usually  is  to  other  young  men  when  they  first  realize  the 
connection  of  some  of  their  respected  seniors  with  the  rami 
fications  of  crooked  business  and  crooked  politics,  ft  He 
made  an  attempt  to  impeach  a  certain  judge.  The  judge 
had  been  used  by  some  men  connected  with  some  great 
corporations  of  the  time.  Though  there  was  considerable 
evidence  against  the  judge,  who  had  gone  so  far  as  to  write 
a  letter  to  a  prominent  financier  in  which  he  expressed 
himself  as  "willing  to  go  to  the  very  verge  of  judicial  dis 
cretion  to  serve  your  vast  interests,' '  it  was  impossible  to 
secure  his  impeachment.  During  the  investigation,  Roose 
velt  was  taken  out  to  lunch  by  an  old  family  friend  who 
he  asserts  had  a  genuine  personal  liking  for  him.  We  will 
let  Colonel  Roosevelt  himself  tell  the  rest  of  the  story: 

"He  explained  that  I  had  done  well  in  the  Legislature, 
that  it  was  a  good  thing  to  have  made  the  'reform  play/ 
that  I  had  shown  that  I  possessed  ability  such  as  would 
make  me  useful  in  the  right  kind  of  law  office  or  business 
concern;  but  that  I  must  not  overplay  my  hand;  that  I 
had  gone  far  enough,  and  that  now  was  the  time  to  leave 
politics  and  identify  myself  with  the  right  kind  of  people, 


60  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  people  who  would  always  in  the  long  run  control  others 
and  obtain  the  real  rewards  which  were  w^orth  having. 
I  asked  him  if  that  meant  I  was  to  yield  to  the  ring  in  poli 
tics.  He  answered  somewhat  impatiently  that  I  was 
entirely  mistaken  (as  in  fact  I  was)  about  there  being 
merely  a  political  ring  of  the  kind  of  which  the  papers  were 
fond  of  talking;  that  the  'ring/  if  it  could  be  called  such, 
that  is,  the  inner  circle,  included  certain  big  business  men, 
and  the  politicians,  lawyers  and  judges  who  were  in  alli 
ance  with,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  dependent  upon  them, 
and  that  the  successful  man  had  to  win  his  success  by  the 
backing  of  the  same  forces,  whether  in  law,  business  or 
politics." 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  the  old  family  friend  did 
not  attain  the  object  which  he  sought  in  inviting  young 
Roosevelt  to  take  lunch  with  him. 

There  were  other  experiences  which  made  lasting 
impressions  that  were  useful  to  him.  Once  certain  large 
corporate  influences  came  to  him  to  ask  him  to  take 
charge  of  a  bill  granting  them  certain  terminal  facilities 
in  New  York  City.  They  told  him  quite  frankly  that  the 
bill  was  one  which  exposed  them  to  the  demands  of  venal 
politicians  because  it  would  grant  a  valuable  privilege. 
He  looked  into  the  subject  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  legislation  was  proper  and  beneficial  to  the  citi 
zens  of  New  York,  and  consented  to  take  charge  of  the 
bill,  provided  they  would  not  use  any  corrupt  means  to 
secure  its  passage.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
which  the  bill  was  referred.  He  was  convinced  that  the 
majority  of  the  committee  were  corrupt.  Before  a  meet 
ing  of  the  committee  in  which  he  intended  to  bring  up  the 
bill,  he  noticed  that  a  chair  in  the  committee  room  was 
broken.  In  case  of  trouble,  he  secured  one  of  the  legs  and 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS      61 

placed  it  where  he  could  easily  reach  it.  He  then  called 
the  meeting  to  order.  He  made  a  motion  to  report  the 
bill  favorably.  This  was  voted  down.  He  then  made  a 
motion  to  have  the  bill  reported  unfavorably.  Again  the 
members  of  the  Black  Horse  Cavalry  present  voted  against 
the  measure  and  the  motion  was  defeated.  This  meant 
that  the  majority  of  the  committee  would  try  to  smother 
the  bill  by  refusing  to  vote  it  out  of  the  committee  until 
the  corporation  paid  them  their  price.  Taking  the  bill, 
he  put  it  in  his  pocket,  arose  and  told  the  members  that 
he  would  report  it.  The  members  of  the  Black  Horse  Cav 
alry  saw  the  prospect  of  illicit  gain  disappearing.  Threat 
ening  murmurs  arose  on  all  sides,  but  he  walked  out  of  the 
room  with  the  bill  unmolested;  the  convenient  chair-leg 
firmly  clasped  in  his  hand  probably  had  a  quieting  effect. 
However,  though  he  could  report  the  bill,  he  could  not  get 
it  through.  The  representatives  of  the  corporation  told 
him  that  perhaps  a  person  of  more  experience  might  suc 
ceed.  The  bill  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  "more  experienced 
politician"  and  not  long  afterwards  it  was  adopted,  his 
enemies  of  the  Black  Horse  Cavalry  all  voting  for  it. 

The  chair-leg  just  referred  to  probably  had  the  desired 
effect  on  the  members  of  his  committee  because  they 
knew  that  the  slight  young  man  was  probably  the  best 
boxer  in  the  House.  Of  this  they  had  had  tangible  proof. 
Once  a  group  of  the  members  decided  that  this  young 
man  from  the  most  fashionable  district  of  New  York  would 
be  improved  and  give  less  trouble  in  the  future  if  he  re 
ceived  a  good  beating.  They  therefore  hired  a  person 
named  "Stubby"  Collins,  of  some  repute  as  a  slugger,  to 
take  the  first  opportunity  "to  do  him  up.  "  The  collision 
occurred  in  the  old  Delavan  House,  a  hotel  where  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  used  to  congregate  in  the  eve- 


62  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ning.  As  Roosevelt  was  leaving,  he  passed  the  door  lead 
ing  to  the  buffet.  A  noisy  crowd  came  out.  "Stubby," 
who  was  one  of  their  number  ran  into  him  and  then  struck 
at  him,  angrily  demanding  why  Roosevelt  had  run  into 
him.  The  blow  never  reached  its  mark,  but  it  is  recorded 
that  "Stubby"  was,  in  a  few  moments,  a  fit  subject  for  the 
anxious  care  of  his  friends.  Thereafter  no  one  attempted 
to  reform  young  Roosevelt's  conduct  by  administering 
to  him  physical  chastisement. 

One  measure  which  came  before  the  Assembly  while 
he  was  a  member,  and  when  Cleveland  was  Governor, 
gave  him  an  opportunity  to  display  the  kind  of  moral 
courage  of  which  I  spoke  in  the  introductory  chapter.  A 
A  bill  was  passed  reducing  the  fare  on  the  elevated  roads 
in  New  York  City  from  ten  cents  to  five  cents.  The  bill 
was  immensely  popular.  The  corporation  running  the 
elevated  railway  was  deservedly  unpopular.  Roosevelt 
had  voted  for  the  bill.  Cleveland  vetoed  the  measure  on 
the  ground  of  its  unconstitutionality,  because  it  violated 
the  implied  contract  on  the  strength  of  which  the  stock 
holders  had  subscribed  their  money  to  build  the  roads. 
Everyone  expected  that  Roosevelt  would  lead  the  fight 
to  pass  the  bill  over  the  Governor's  veto.  Instead  of  doing 
this,  he  voted  to  sustain  the  Governor,  and  frankly  apolo 
gized  for  his  previous  vote  in  favor  of  the  measure. 

"I  have  to  say  with  shame  that  when  I  voted  for  this 
bill  I  did  not  act  as  I  think  I  ought  to  have  acted  on  the 
floor  of  this  House.  For  the  only  time,  I  did  at  that  time 
vote  contrary  to  what  I  think  to  be  honestly  right.  I  have 
to  confess  that  I  weakly  yielded,  partly  to  a  vindictive 
feeling  toward  the  infernal  thieves  who  have  those  rail 
roads  in  charge  and  partly  to  the  popular  voice  in  New 
York.  For  the  managers  of  the  elevated  railroads  I  have 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE   INTO  POLITICS      63 

as  little  feeling  as  any  man  here,  and  if  it  were  possible  I 
should  be  willing  to  pass  a  bill  of  attainder  against  Gould 
and  all  of  his  associates.  I  realize  that  they  have  done  the 
most  incalculable  harm  in  this  community,  with  their 
hired  stock-jobbing  newspaper,  with  their  corruption  of 
the  judiciary,  and  with  their  corruption  of  this  House. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  doing  right  to  them,  for  they  are 
merely  common  thieves.  As  to  the  resolution" — a  peti 
tion  handed  in  by  the  directors  of  the  company —  "signed 
by  Gould  and  his  son,  I  would  pay  more  attention  to  a 
petition  signed  by  Barney  Aaron,  Owney  Geoghegan,  and 
Billy  McGlory  then  I  would  pay  to  that  paper,  because  I 
regard  these  men  as  part  of  an  infinitely  dangerous  order — 
the  wealthy  criminal  class." 

Many  expected  that  he  had  written  his  political  death 
warrant.  His  action  would  have  had  this  effect  if  his  whole 
course  at  Albany  had  not  shown  that  he  was  above  the 
suspicion  of  being  subject  directly  or  indirectly  to  corpo 
rate  influences.  As  it  was,  whether  they  agreed  with  him 
or  not,  the  courage  which  it  took  to  make  the  speech 
strengthened  him,  not  only  with  his  constituents  but  with 
hundreds  of  others. 

Then,  as  now,  a  representative  who  wished  really  to 
protect  the  interests  of  his  constituents  was  on  the  look 
out  for  snake  bills,  that  is  bills  which,  as  originally  intro 
duced,  have  a  most  innocent  appearance,  but  which  are 
amended  at  the  last  moment  to  further  some  special  inter 
est  willing  to  take  advantage  of  any  means,  however  low, 
to  promote  legislation  from  which  they  expect  financial 
benefit.  It  was  in  connection  with  one  of  these  bills  that 
an  exciting  scene  took  place  in  the  House,  and  in  which 
Roosevelt  was  a  center  of  interest.  Roosevelt  and  Mike 
Costello  used  to  spend  a  good  deal  of  time  examining  the 


64  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

different  bills  introduced.  One  bill  puzzled  them.  It 
proposed  a  constitutional  amendment,  harmless  enough 
in  character.  The  puzzling  thing  about  it  was  not  the  bill, 
but  the  author,  a  saloon-keeper.  Why  should  that  par 
ticular  saloon-keeper  take  an  interest  in  an  amendment 
to  the  constitution?  He  belonged  distinctly  to  that  class 
of  representatives  who  could  refer  to  constitutional  amend 
ments  as  "local  legislation/'  though  history  does  not  tell  us 
if  he  was  the  same  man  who  indignantly  replied  to  Roose 
velt's  objection  that  his  pet  bill  was  unconstitutional — 
"What  is  the  constitution  between  friends?" 

The  bill  was  introduced  and  passed  the  House.  It 
then  went  over  to  the  Senate,  where,  just  before  its  final 
passage,  it  was  amended,  by  the  simple  process  of  striking 
out  everything  except  the  enacting  clause,  and  by  in 
serting  an  entirely  new  bill  to  remit  the  unpaid  taxes 
due  by  the  elevated  roads  of  New  York  City.  By 
mere  chance,  Mike  Costello  heard  the  amendment 
read  in  the  Senate.  The  bill  had  to  be  returned  to  the 
House  for  concurrence  in  the  amendment.  Those  in  charge 
of  the  measure  waited  until  both  Roosevelt  and  Costello 
were  away,  and  then  started  to  rush  the  bill  through. 
Costello,  in  an  anteroom,  heard  what  was  going  on,  rushed 
in  and  at  once  started  a  filibuster,  at  the  same  time  send 
ing  for  his  young  associate.  Roosevelt  thus  described 
the  scene  that  followed: 

"The  speaker  pro  tern,  called  him  to  order.  Mike  con 
tinued  to  speak  and  protest;  the  speaker  hammered  him 
down;  Mike  continued  his  protests;  the  sergeant-at-arms 
was  sent  to  arrest  and  remove  him;  and  then  I  bounced 
in,  and  continued  the  protest,  and  refused  to  sit  down  or 
be  silent.  Amid  wild  confusion  the  amendment  was  de 
clared  adopted,  and  the  bill  was  ordered  engrossed  and 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE   INTO  POLITICS       65 

sent  to  the  Governor.  But  we  had  carried  our  point.  The 
next  morning  the  whole  press  rang  with  what  had  happen 
ed;  every  detail  of  the  bill,  and  every  detail  of  the  way  it 
had  been  slipped  through  the  Legislature,  were  made 
public.  All  the  slow  and  cautious  men  in  the  House,  who 
had  been  afraid  of  taking  sides,  now  came  forward  in  sup 
port  of  us.  Another  debate  was  held  on  the  proposal  to 
rescind  the  vote;  the  city  authorities  waked  up  to  pro 
test;  the  Governor  refused  to  sign  the  bill.  Two  or  three 
years  later,  after  much  litigation,  the  taxes  were  paid;  in 
the  newspapers  it  was  stated  that  the  amount  was  over 
$1,500,000.  It  was  Mike  Costello,  to  whom  primarily 
was  due  the  fact  that  this  sum  was  saved  the  public,  and 
that  the  forces  of  corruption  received  a  stinging  rebuff. 
He  did  not  expect  recognition  or  reward  for  his  services; 
and  he  got  none.  The  public,  if  it  knew  of  what  he  had 
done,  promptly  forgot  it.  The  machine  did  not  forget  it, 
and  turned  him  down  at  the  next  election.' ' 

Throughout  his  course  in  the  Legislature  his  primary 
interest  was  in  reform  as  then  understood;  that  is,  in 
improving  the  methods  of  appointment  to  executive  office, 
in  defeating  corrupt  legislation  and  in  antagonizing  low 
political  methods,  as  well  as  in  improving,  in  details,  the 
machinery  of  government.  The  larger  questions  of  social 
and  industrial  justice  and  the  need  for  a  fundamental 
change  in  the  citizen's  individualistic  outlook  on  life- 
questions  which  were  to  absorb  so  large  a  part  of  his  energy 
during  his  career  as  President  and  afterwards,  were  not 
really  considered  by  him,  though  he  did  have  one  useful 
experience  in  connection  with  an  attempt  to  improve 
tenement-house  conditions,  an  experience  which  made  a 
lasting  impression  on  him,  and  to  which  we  will  have 
occasion  to  refer  later. 


66  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

It  was  natural  that  in  the  campaign  for  the  Republi 
can  nomination,  in  the  spring  of  1884,  he  should  be  found 
with  those  in  favor  of  the  nomination  of  Senator  George 
F.  Edmunds,  of  Vermont.  Edmunds  was  a  man  whose 
whole  course  in  the  Senate  had  justly  won  for  him  the 
admiration  of  men  whose  political  interests  and  ideals  were 
those  of  the  young  assemblyman.  Together  with  a  group 
of  men  from  New  York,  Roosevelt  went  to  the  con 
vention  in  the  interests  of  the  Vermont  Senator.  His 
position  among  his  fellow-delegates  from  the  state  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  was  made  their  represen 
tative  on  the  Resolutions,  or  Platform,  Committee.  Prac 
tically  from  the  opening  of  the  convention,  he  realized, 
what  some  of  his  older  associates  did  not  realize,  that  the 
nomination  of  "the  man  from  Maine,"  James  G.  Elaine, 
was  inevitable,  not  only  because  he  was  by  far  the  strong 
est  candidate  with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  delegates,  but 
because  John  A.  Logan,  himself  a  candidate,  would  prob 
ably  allow  his  strength  to  go  to  the  "plumed  knight,"  as 
Col.  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  called  Blaine  in  his  nomination 
speech.  His  belief  in  the  ultimate  result,  however,  did  not 
interfere  with  his  working  hard  to  effect  a  combination 
with  the  forces  of  President  Arthur  to  prevent  Elaine's 
nomination.  Elaine,  however,  was  the  real  choice  of  the 
majority  of  the  party.  He  was  selected  on  the  fourth 
ballot  by  a  vote  of  541  out  of  a  total  of  813. 

To  Roosevelt,  as  to  thousands  of  other  Republicans, 
the  nomination  of  Blaine  presented  a  serious  question. 
At  the  time,  while  Blaine  was  decidedly  popular  with 
those  who  had  come  in  contact  with  his  magnetic  person 
ality,  his  nomination  was  generally  regarded  as  the 
triumph  of  policies  to  which  the  reform  element  of  the 
party  were  generally  opposed.  Roosevelt  had  voted 


THE  FIRST  PLUNGE  INTO  POLITICS      67 

against  the  resolution  introduced  prior  to  the  balloting 
which  bound  the  delegates  to  support  the  nominee  of  the 
convention.  Thousands  of  Republicans  on  the  nomina 
tion  of  Mr.  Cleveland  decided  to  desert  the  Republican 
party  and  vote  for  the  man  whose  course  as  Governor  of 
New  York  had  shown  him/a  friend  of  Civil  Service  Reform, 
and  a  strong  opponent*^  corruption  in  politics.  Roose 
velt  remained  Republican.  He  supported  Blaine.  Look 
ing  back  now  at  this  distance  of  time,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
perceive  that  his  decision  was  right.  Not  that  those  who 
at  that  period  deserted  the  Republican  party  were  neces 
sarily  wrong.  Parties  are  but  instruments  through  which 
men  work  to  obtain  ends.  It  was  true  of  Roosevelt  as  it 
was  probably  not  true  of  the  majority  of  those  who 
deserted  the  Republican  party  in  the  fall  of  1884,  that  for 
him  a  greater  opportunity  for  effective  good  lay  within 
the  Republican  party  than  without  it.  Had  he  made  the 
mistake  of  becoming  what  was  known  in  the  political 
parlance  of  the  day  as  a  "mugwump,' '  his  opportunity  for 
the  kind  of  service  which  he  was  capable  of  rendering 
would  have  been  narrowed./ 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ELKHORN  RANCH 

IN  September,  1883,  Roosevelt  went  to  what  was 
then  the  Territory  o'£Z)akota  and  bought  a  ranch 
known  as  the  "Chimney  Butte,"  on  the  Little  Mis 
souri.  In  June  of  the  following  year  he  purchased  the 
Elkhorn  Ranch  lower  down  the  river.  Thereafter,  and 
until  his  acceptance  of  the  appointment  as  Civil  Service 
Commissioner  in  1889,  he  was  engaged  actively]  in  the 
business  of  a  rancher.  Though  he  still  spent  the  greater 
part  of  each  winter  in  New  York,  he  lived  during  the 
major  portion  of  these  years  at  one  or  other  of  his  ranches. 

"It  was  still  the  Wild  West  in  those  days,' '  he  tells  us, 
"the  Far  West,  the  West  of  Owen  Wister's  stories  and 
Frederic  Remington's  drawings,  the  West  of  the  Indian 
and  the  buffalo-hunter,  the  soldier  and  the  cow-puncher. 
That  land  of  the  West  has  gone  now,  'gone,  gone  with  lost 
Atlantis,'  gone  to  the  isle  of  ghosts  and  of  strange  dead 
memories.  It  was  a  land  of  vast  silent  spaces,  of  lonely 
rivers,  and  of  plains  where  the  wild  game  stared  at  the 
passing  horseman.  It  was  a  land  of  scattered  ranches,  of 
herds  of  long-horned  cattle,  and  of  reckless  riders  who 
unmoved  looked  in  the  eyes  of  life  or  of  death." 

His  determination  not  to  seek  re-election  to  the  As 
sembly  in  the  fall  of  1884,  and  to  take  up  seriously  the 
business  of  a  ranchman  on  the  Western  plains  was  prob 
ably  due  to  a  combination  of  causes.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  nomination  of  Elaine,  while  it  did  not  drive  him  out 
of  the  Republican  party,  as  it  did  many  of  his  associates, 

(68) 


THE  ELKHORN  RANCH  69 

nevertheless  left  him  out  of  sympathy  with  the  then 
dominant  elements  of  the  party  in  national  affairs.  Again 
while  he  had  intensely  enjoyed  his  life  at  Albany  and  the 
game  of  politics,  politics  were  not  his  only  interest.  He 
was  always  ambitious  to  become  distinguished  as  a  writer, 
and  ranch  life,  while  rough,  with  periods  of  arduous  phys 
ical  work,  nevertheless  left  for  a  man  of  his  temperament 
much  leisure  for  writing. 

There  were  also  intimate  personal  reasons*  On  Feb 
ruary  14,  1884,  he  lost  bcith  his  wife  and  his  mother, 
his  wife  dying  twTo  days  alter  the  birth  of  a  daughter. 
This  double  loss  severed  the  ties  which  would  otherwise 
probably  have  prevented  his  taking  up  the  life  of  a 
ranchman.  His  mind  naturally  sought  relief  in  solitude 
rather  than  in  the  contests  and  excitements  of  politics  at 
Albany.  Besides  these  immediate  and  perhaps  deter 
mining  causes,  he  loved  the  Western  life. 

"I  do  not  believe,"  he  says,  "there  was  any  life  more 
attractive  to  a  vigorous  young  fellow  than  life  on  a  cattle 
ranch  in  those  days.  It  was  a  fine,  healthy  life  too;  it 
taught  a  man  self-reliance,  hardihood  and  the  value  of 
instant  decision — in  short,  the  virtues  that  ought  to  come 
from  life  in  the  open  country.  I  enjoyed  the  life  to  the 
full." 

The  rugged  experiences  of  the  outlying  places  of  the 
world  appealed  to  him.  To  borrow  from  Kipling,  he 
heard  the  "Red  Gods"  calling,  and  looked  beyond  the 
skyline  where  the  strange  roads  go  down. 

At  first  the  Chimney  Butte  ranch  house  was  a  one- 
room  log  structure  with  a  dirt  roof,  a  corral  for  the  horses 
nearby,  and  a  chicken-house  jabbed  against  the  rear  of 
the  ranch  house.  Later  he  brought  out  to  the  Elkhorn 
Ranch  his  old  friends  from  Maine,  Sewall  and  Dow.  They 


70  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

were  mighty  with  the  axe  and  built  for  him  a  long  low 
ranch  house  of  hewn  logs,  with  bed-rooms,  and  a  sitting- 
room  with  a  big  fireplace.  Here  it  was  that  he  gathered 
about  him  the  books  he  loved,  Van  Dyke's  "  Still  Hunter,' ' 
Dodge's  "Plains  of  the  Great  West,"  Caton's  "Deer  and 
Antelope  of  America"  and  Coues'  "Birds  of  the  North 
west."  "As  for  Irving,  Hawthorne,  Cooper,  Lowell  and 
the  other  standbys,' '  he  writes,  "I  suppose  no  man,  either 
East  or  West,  would  willingly  be  long  without  them." 
For  lighter  reading  he  had  "dreamy  Ik  Marvel,  Burroughs' 
breezy  pages,  and  the  quaint,  pathetic  character  sketches 
of  the  Southern  writers,  Cable,  Craddock,  Macon,  Joel 
Chandler  Harris  and  sweet  Sherwood  Bonner."  He  prob 
ably  had  Poe's  tales  and  poems,  for  when  he  was  in  the 
Bad  Lands  he  felt  "  as  if  they  somehow  looked  just  exactly 
as  Poe's  tales  and  poems  sound.' ' 

He  wrote  books  as  well  as  read  them — books  on  history, 
politics,  and  phases  of  his  Western  life.  His  "Hunting 
Trips  of  a  Ranchman"  appeared  in  1886,  and  his  "Life  of 
Thomas  Hart  Benton  "  in  1887.  The  "  Life  of  Gouverneur 
Morris,"  "Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting  Trail,"  and  "Es 
says  in  Practical  Politics,"  which  had  first  appeared  as 
magazine  articles,  were  published  in  1888.  It  was  here 
he  received  the  inspiration  for  his  four-volume  work, 
"The  Winning  of  the  We$t,*'  for  his  own  experiences 
were  attended  with  pioneer  perils  which  put  him  in  keenest 
sympathy  with  the  experiences  of  Lewis  and  Clark  less 
than  a  century  before.  He  often  expressed  his  regard  for 
honest,  courageous  manhood,  whether  he  found  it  in  a 
cowpuncher,  an  Indian,  or  even  in  one  of  those  Western 
desperadoes  popularly  known  as  a  "bad  man,"  if  he 
betrayed  generous  impulses  and  was  willing  to  improve 
and  live  squarely.  In  "The  Strenuous  Life"  he  wrote: 


THE  ELKHORN  RANCH  71 

"Thank  God  for  the  iron  in  the  blood  of  our  fathers, 
the  men  who  upheld  the  wisdom  of  Lincoln,  and  bore  the 
sword  in  the  army  of  Grant !' ' 

There  was  work  on  the  ranch  in  plenty,  and  hard  work, 
too,  often  full  of  danger,  and  sometimes  privation.  He 
knew  what  it  was  to  ride  under  the  scorching  midsummer 
sun  or  in  the  freezing  cold  of  the  late  fall  round-up.  He 
knew  the  biting  wind  of  the  winter  blizzard,  the  monotony 
of  guarding  hour  after  hour  the  trail  cattle  or  the  beef 
herds  at  the  slowest  of  walks,  and  the  "minutes  or  hours 
teeming  with  excitement"  when  the  herd  stampeded,  or 
when  they  had  to  be  guided  across  ice-filled  rivers  or  rivers 
full  of  dangerous  quicksands. 

He  had  several  experiences  trying  to  ride  bucking 
bronchos.  One  threw  him  (Jffybn  a  rock  during  a  round-up 
and  broke  his  arm,  and  another  horse,  known  as  "the 
Devil,"  fell  backwards  upon  him  and  split  the  point  of 
his  shoulder.  On  both  occasions  there  was  nothing  to  do 
but  remount  and  go  on  with  the  work  of  rounding  up,  for 
often  the  nearest  doctor  was  more  than  one  hundred  miles 
away. 

He  tells  us  that  he  never  became  a  good  rider  accord 
ing  to  Western  standards.  Yet  he  was,  and  remained 
all  his  life,  according  to  Eastern  standards,  an  excellent 
horseman. 

Though  he  could  handle  a  rope,  he  could  not  always 
handle  it  with  dexterity.  Once  he  and  George  Meyer,  who 
long  afterwards,  like  many  of  his  companions  in  those 
days,  was  a  delegate  to  the  First  Progressive  National 
Convention,  were  trying  to  get  some  cattle  across  a  river. 
Two  of  the  calves  refused  to  budge.  Meyer's  calf  was 
small,  and  he  could  carry  it  in  his  arms  \vhile  he  rode  his 
horse,  but  Roosevelt's  calf  was  too  big  for  this  process. 


72  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

So  Roosevelt  roped  it,  and  attempted  to  pull  it  along. 
Owing  to  some  lack  of  dexterity  with  the  rope,  the  calf, 
bouncing  and  bleating,  swung  around  the  rear  of  the 
horse,  bringing  the  rope  under  his  tail.  There  was  a  bank 
four  feet  high  on  either  side  of  the  river.  The  horse  bolted 
and  went  over  the  bank  and  into  the  water  with  a  splash. 
The  calf  followed,  described  a  parabola  in  the  air,  and 
landed  "plunk"  beside  the  horse.  The  calf  could  not  buck 
in  the  stream,  so  across,  horse,  rider  and  calf  went,  the  calf 
"making  a  wake  like  Pharaoh's  army  at  the  Red  Sea." 

There  were  spring  and  early  summer  round-ups  to 
brand  the  calves,  and  fall  round-ups  to  collect  the  cattle 
for  the  winter.  They  were  attended  by  all  the  cowboys 
for  miles  around,  and  there  was  lots  of  hard,  exciting  work 
and  plenty  of  fun.  He  has  left  us  a  description  of  one 
of  those  comparatively  rare  occasions  when  the  cattle 
stampeded: 

"One  night  there  was  a  heavy  storm,  and  all  of  us  who 
were  at  the  wagons  were  obliged  to  turn  out  hastily  to 
help  the  night  herders.  After  a  while  there  was  a  terrific 
peal  of  thunder,  the  lightning  struck  right  by  the  herd, 
and  away  all  the  beasts  went,  heads  and  horns  and  tails 
in  the  air.  For  a  minute  or  two  I  could  make  out  nothing 
except  the  dark  forms  of  the  beasts  running  on  every  side 
of  me,  and  I  should  have  been  very  sorry  if  my  horse  had 
stumbled,  for  those  behind  would  have  trodden  me  down. 
Then  the  herd  split,  part  going  to  one  side,  while  the  other 
part  seemingly  kept  straight  ahead,  and  I  galloped  as  hard 
as  ever  beside  them.  I  was  trying  to  reach  the  point— 
the  leading  animals — in  order  to  turn  them,  when  suddenly 
there  was  a  tremendous  splashing  in  front.  I  could  dimly 
make  out  that  the  cattle  immediately  ahead  and  to  one 
side  of  me  were  disappearing,  and  the  next  moment  the 


THE   ELKHORN  RANCH  73 

horse  and  I  went  off  a  cut  bank  into  the  Little  Missouri. 
I  bent  away  back  in  the  saddle,  and  though  the  horse 
almost  went  down  he  just  recovered  himself,  and,  plunging 
and  struggling  through  water  and  quicksand,  we  made  the 
other  side.  Here  I  discovered  that  there  was  another 
cowboy  with  the  same  part  of  the  herd  that  I  was  with; 
but  almost  immediately  we  separated.  I  galloped  hard 
through  a  bottom  covered  with  big  cottonwood  trees,  and 
stopped  the  part  of  the  herd  that  I  was  with,  but  very  soon 
they  broke  on  me  again,  and  repeated  this  twice.  Finally 
toward  morning  the  few  I  had  left  came  to  a  halt. 

"It  had  been  raining  hard  for  some  time.  I  got  off  my 
horse  and  leaned  against  a  tree,  but  before  long  the  infernal 
cattle  started  on  again,  and  I  had  to  ride  after  them. 
Dawn  came  soon  after  this,  and  I  was  able  to  make  out 
where  I  was  and  head  the  cattle  back,  collecting  other 
little  bunches  as  I  went.  After  a  while  I  came  on  a  cow 
boy  on  foot  carrying  his  saddle  on  his  head.  He  was  my 
companion  of  the  previous  night.  His  horse  had  gone  full 
speed  into  a  tree  and  killed  itself,  the  man,  however,  not 
being  hurt.  I  could  not  help  him,  as  I  had  all  I  could  do 
to  handle  the  cattle.  When  I  got  them  to  the  wagon,  most 
of  the  other  men  had  already  come  in  and  the  riders  were 
just  starting  on  the  long  circle.  One  of  the  men  changed 
my  horse  for  me  while  I  ate  a  hasty  breakfast,  and  then 
we  were  off  for  the  day's  work. 

"As  only  about  half  of  the  night  herd  had  been  brought 
back,  the  circle  riding  was  particularly  heavy,  and  it  was 
ten  hours  before  we  were  back  at  the  wagon.  We  then 
changed  horses  again  and  worked  the  whole  herd  until 
after  sunset,  finishing  just  as  it  grew  too  dark  to  do  any 
thing  more.  By  this  time  I  had  been  nearly  forty  hours  in 
the  saddle,  changing  horses  five  times,  and  my  clothes  had 


74  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

thoroughly  dried  on  me,  and  I  fell  asleep  as  soon  as  I 
touched  the  bedding.  Fortunately  some  men  who  had 
gotten  in  late  in  the  morning  had  had  their  sleep  during 
the  daytime,  so  that  the  rest  of  us  escaped  night  guard 
and  were  not  called  until  four  next  morning.  Nobody  ever 
gets  enough  sleep  on  a  round-up.' ' 

At  first  he  had  to  overcome  not  only  tiie  prejudice 
against  all  tenderfeet  but  the  special  prejudice  which 
was  attached  to  him  on  account  of  His yeye-gl asses.  The 
cowboys  called  him  "Four  Eyes."  [/He  said  it  always 
took  him  at  least  twenty -four  hours  in  a  new  place  to 
live  down  this  prejudice.  Speaking  of  meeting  a  strange 
set  of  men  at  a  round-up,  he  adds,  "By  this  time  I  would 
have  been  accepted  as  one  of  the  outfit,  and  all  strange 
ness  would  have  passed  off,  the  attitude  of  my  fellow  cow- 
punchers  being  one  of  friendly  forgiveness,  even  towards 
my  spectacles." 

Once  a  rowdy  in  a  tavern  where  Roosevelt  was  to  stay 
all  night  noticed  this  queer  tenderfoot  and,  desiring  to 
have  some  real  fun  yelled,  "Look  what's  drifted  in! 
Step  up,  boys,  and  take  a  look  at  Four  Eyes !" 

The  wearer  of  the  offending  glasses  paying  no  atten 
tion,  the  loafer,  emboldened,  pointed  a  pair  of  cocked  pis 
tols  at  him  and  informed  the  crowd  that  "  Mr.  Four-Eyes' ' 
would  treat  everyone  to  a  drink.  Roosevelt  started  to 
wards  the  bar  as  if  to  comply,  but,  catching  the  bad 
man  off  his  guard,  landed  a  few  blows  under  the  man's 
chin  and  elsewhere.  As  he  went  over  backwards  his  pistols 
went  off,  making  holes  in  the  ceiling,  and  he  struck  his 
head  with  such  force  against  the  edge  of  the  bar  that  he 
failed  to  come  to  until  some  time  after  he  had  been  car 
ried  out  to  a  neighboring  shed  and  Roosevelt  had  gone  to 
bed.  When  he  did  come  to,  not  liking  to  face  the  jeers  of 


THE   ELKHORN   RANCH  75 

the  bystanders  after  such  a  beating,  he  drifted  down  to 
the  station  and  disappeared  from  the  place  on  the  first 
passing  freight  train.  "Mr.  Four-Eyes"  had  proved  to 
be  the  liveliest  tenderfoot  that  that  bad  man  had  ever  met. 
The  story  of  another  personal  encounter  of  quite  a 
different  kind  with  a  certain  Frenchman  of  rank,  known 
as  the  Marquis  de  Mores,  is  told  by  the  late  Jacob  Riis. 
This  marquis  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  thereabout.  He 
built  Medora,  the  county  seat,  and  named  it  for  his  wife. 
He  was  determined  to  rule  in  the  region,  and  he  had  tried 
to  do  this  by  intimidating  all  comers.  "Whether  it  was 
over  a  cattle  matter,' '  says  Riis,  or  "some  other  local  con 
cern  that  his  misunderstanding  with  the  Marquis  de  Mores 
arose,  of  which  there  have  been  so  many  versions,  I  have 
forgotten.  It  does  not  matter.  In  the  nature  of  things  it 
had  to  come  sooner  or  later,  on  one  pretext  or  another. 
The  two  were  neighbors,  their  ranches  being  some  ten  or 
fifteen  miles  apart.  The  marquis  was  a  gallant  but  exag 
gerated  Frenchman,  w^ith  odd  feudal  notions  still  clinging 
in  his  brain.  He  took  it  into  his  head  to  be  offended  by 
something  Roosevelt  \vas  reported  to  have  said,  before  he 
had  met  him,  and  wrote  him  a  curt  note  telling  him  what 
he  had  heard,  and  that  'there  was  a  way  for  gentlemen  to 
settle  their  differences,'  to  which  he  invited  Roosevelt's 
attention.  Mr.  Roosevelt  promptly  replied  that  he  had 
heard  a  lie;  that  he,  the  marquis,  had  no  business  to  be 
lieve  it  true  upon  such  evidence,  and  that  he  would  follow 
his  note  in  person  within  the  hour.  He  despatched  the 
letter  to  Medora,  where  the  marquis  was,  by  one  of  his 
men,  and,  true  to  his  word,  started  himself  immediately 
after.  Before  he  came  in  sight  of  the  little  'cow  town' 
he  was  met  by  a  courier  traveling  in  haste  from  the  mar 
quis  with  a  gentleman's  apology  and  a  cordial  invitation 


76  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

to  dine  with  him  in  town.  And  that  was  all  there  was  of 
the  sensational  'duel'  with  the  French  nobleman." 

Besides  his  experiences  with  cowboys  and  with  a 
French  gentleman  of  rank,  there  were  experiences  with 
Indians,  though  at  the  time  Roosevelt  lived  on  the  Little 
Missouri,  the  Indians  gave  comparatively  little  trouble. 
Occasionally,  however,  parties  of  savage  young  bucks 
would  treat  lonely  settlers  badly,  sometimes  murdering 
them.  These  bands  were  usually  composed  of  young 
fellows  burning  to  distinguish  themselves.  He  thus  tells 
of  what  he  calls  a  "trifling  encounter  with  such  a  band:' ' 

"I  was  making  my  way  along  the  edge  of  the  bad 
lands,  northward  from  my  lower  ranch,  and  was  just 
crossing  a  plateau  when  five  Indians  rode  up  over  the 
further  rim.  The  instant  they  saw  me  they  whipped  out 
their  guns  and  raced  full  speed  at  me,  yelling  and  flogging 
their  horses.  I  was  on  a  favorite  horse,  Manitou,  who  was 
a  wise  old  fellow,  with  nerves  not  to  be  shaken  by  anything. 
I  at  once  leaped  off  him  and  stood  with  my  rifle  ready. 

"It  was  possible  that  the  Indians  were  merely  making 
a  bluff  and  intended  no  mischief.  But  I  did  not  like  their 
actions,  and  I  thought  it  likely  if  I  allowed  them  to  get 
hold  of  me  they  would  at  least  take  my  horse  and  rifle,  and 
possibly  kill  me.  So  I  waited  until  they  were  a  hundred 
yards  off  and  then  drew  a  bead  on  the  first.  Indians — and 
for  the  matter  of  that,  white  men — do  not  like  to  ride  in  on 
a  man  who  is  cool  and  means  shooting,  and  in  a  twinkling 
every  man  was  lying  over  the  side  of  his  horse,  and  all 
five  had  turned  and  were  galloping  backwards,  having 
altered  their  course  as  quickly  as  so  many  teal  ducks. 

"After  this  one  of  them  made  the  peace  sign,  with 
his  blanket  first,  and  then,  as  he  rode  toward  me,  with  his 
open  hand.  I  halted  him  at  a  fair  distance  and  asked  him 


THE  ELKHORN  RANCH  77 

what  he  wanted.  He  exclaimed,  'How?  Me  good  Injun, 
me  good  Injun,'  and  tried  to  show  me  the  dirty  piece  of 
paper  on  which  his  agency  pass  was  written.  I  told  him 
with  sincerity  that  I  was  glad  that  he  was  a  good  Indian, 
but  that  he  must  not  come  any  closer.  He  then  asked  for 
sugar  and  tobacco.  I  told  him  I  had  none.  Another 
Indian  began  slowly  drifting  toward  me  in  spite  of  my 
calling  out  to  keep  back,  so  I  once  more  aimed  with  my 
rifle,  whereupon  both  Indians  slipped  to  the  other  side  of 
their  horses  and  galloped  off,  with  oaths  that  did  credit 
to  at  least  one  side  of  their  acquaintance  with  English. 
I  now  mounted  and  pushed  over  the  plateau  on  to  the 
open  prairie.  In  those  days  an  Indian,  although  not  as 
good  a  shot  as  a  white  man,  was  infinitely  better  at  crawl 
ing  under  and  taking  advantage  of  cover;  and  the  worst 
thing  a  white  man  could  do  was  to  get  into  cover,  whereas 
out  in  the  open  if  he  kept  his  head  he  had  a  good  chance 
of  standing  off  even  half  a  dozen  assailants.  The  Indians 
accompanied  me  for  a  couple  of  miles.  Then  I  reached  the 
open  prairie,  and  resumed  my  northward  ride,  not  being 
further  molested." 

Roosevelt  owed  much  to  his  Western  experience. 
His  terms  in  the  New  York  Legislature  had  brought  him 
into  intimate  contact  with  political  conditions  in  the  East. 
His  ranch  life  brought  him  into  equally  intimate  contact 
with  totally  different  conditions.  Each  condition  was  in 
its  way  typical  of  varied  phases  of  our  national  life.  There 
after  he  knew  the  men  of  the  "new' '  country,  though  that 
"new"  country  might  be  hundreds  of  miles  further  south 
west  or  northeast  than  the  Little  Missouri. 

Just  as  many  of  the  politicians  in  his  Assembly  district 
and  in  the  New  York  Legislature  became  his  life-long 
friends,  so  most  of  those  who  came  into  contact  with  him 


78  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

on  the  cattle  ranch  or  in  his  various  hunting  trips  ever 
afterwards  respected  and  trusted  him.  As  for  politics  I 
do  not  think  that  any  of  them  ever  had  any  politics,  after 
he  became  a  national  political  figure,  They  would  have 
voted  for  him  on  any  ticket,  and  that  without  reading 
the  platform.  Many  years  afterwards  four  of  these  men, 
the  four  with  whom  he  had  played  old  sledge  and  chased 
a  bobcat  the  first  night  he  spent  at  Chimney  Butte,  in  Sep 
tember,  1883,  and  who  had  been  his  closest  associates,  J. 
A.  Ferris,  S.  N.  Ferris,  W.  J.  Merrifield  and  G.  W.  Meyer, 
came  to  the  First  National  Progressive  Convention  as 
delegates.  He  had  his  picture  taken  with  all  four,  and 
five  more  pleased  men  never  stood  before  a  camera. 

As  we  read  his  own  account  of  the  different  characters 
he  met,  our  first  impression  is  that  they  must  have  been 
an  extraordinarily  fine  lot.  Undoubtedly  some  of  them, 
men  like  Seth  Bullock,  for  instance,  justify  his  assertion 
that  Owen  Wister's  "Virginian"  is  not  exaggerated.  But 
with  most  of  them  we  soon  perceive  that  our  impression 
is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  he  liked  them  and  saw  the 
best  in  them.  They  wrere  just  ordinary  men,  put  into  con 
ditions  writh  which  the  average  liver  in  towns  or  on  farms 
does  not  come  in  contact.  Roosevelt  got  the  best  out  of 
them  because  he  gave  them  his  best,  He  was  not  there  to 
play  at  ranching,  and  to  do  a  little  hunting;  but  to  do  a 
man's  part  with  men,  in  a  world  of  men.  It  caught  and 
held  their  imagination  that  this  man,  who  could  write 
books,  who  had  wealth,  education,  and  position  in  the 
great  wrorld  of  the  East,  was  a  good  fellow  and  their  friend. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  when  the  opportunity  came,  he  could 
raise  a  regiment  of  Rough  Riders?  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
when  he  became  President  the  chief  event  in  the  life  of  a 
far  Western  friend  was  to  go  to  Washington  and  see  the 


THE  ELKHORN  RANCH  79 

President,  or  that,  in  trouble,  often  serious  and  sometimes 
deserved,  they  turned  to  him  with  the  confidence  of 
children? 

"Dear  Colonel:  I  write  you  because  I  am  in  trouble." 
His  heart  would  sink,  for  he  knew  that  the 
trouble  of  a  cow-puncher  friend  would  not  infrequently 
be  serious.  Sometimes,  however,  his  sense  of  humor  over 
came  his  sense  of  regret  that  the  trouble  was  too  well 
deserved  to  make  it  proper  for  him  to  interfere.  One  cor 
respondent,  to  whom  he  gave  the  fictitious  name  of  Gritto, 
wrote,  "Dear  Colonel:  I  write  you  because  I  am  in 
trouble.  I  have  shot  a  lady  in  the  eye.  But,  Colonel,  I 
was  not  shooting  at  the  lady.  I  wTas  shooting  at  my  w^ife.' ' 

One  Major  Llewellyn,  who  was  Federal  District  Attor 
ney  under  him  in  New  Mexico,  often  wrote  him  letters 
filled  with  bits  of  interesting  gossip  about  the  comrades. 
One  ran  in  part  as  follows: 

"  Since  I  last  wrote  you  Comrade  Ritchie  has  killed  a 
man  in  Colorado.  I  understand  that  the  comrade  was 
playing  a  poker  game,  and  the  man  sat  into  the  game  and 
used  such  language  that  Comrade  Ritchie  had  to  shoot. 
Comrade  Webb  has  killed  two  men  in  Beaver,  Arizona. 
Comrade  Webb  is  in  the  Forest  Service,  and  the  killing 
was  in  the  line  of  professional  duty.  I  was  out  at  the  pen 
itentiary  the  other  day  and  saw  Comrade  Gritto,  who, 
you  may  remember,  was  put  there  for  shooting  his  sister- 
in-law  (this  was  the  first  information  the  Colonel  received 
as  to  the  identity  of  the  lady  who  was  shot  in  the  eye). 
Since  he  was  in  there,  Comrade  Boyne  has  run  off  to  old 
Mexico  with  his  (Gritto's)  wife,  and  the  people  of  Grant 
County  think  he  ought  to  be  let  out.' ' 

In  commenting  on  this  letter,  Roosevelt  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  sporting  instinct  of  the  inhabitants  of 


80  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Grant  County  had  been  aroused.  They  felt  that  as  Com 
rade  Boyne  had  had  a  fair  start,  the  ether  comrade  should 
be  let  out — to  see  what  would  happen. 

These  unfortunate  ones,  however,  were  the  exceptions. 
Most  of  his  friends  of  ranch  days  have  changed  with  the 
country,  and  are  now  to  be  found  as  solid  and  substantial 
citizens,  living  in  orderly  communities  where  there  are 
schools  and  paved  streets  and  trolley-cars  and  other  ad 
juncts  of  a  settled  civilization.  \  I 

Occasionally  he  went  on  long  Aunting  trips  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  usually  with  %i«  foreman,  Merrifield,or 
later  with  Tazewell  Woody,  John  Willis  or  John  Goff.  In 
his  "Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman,"  he  gives  us  the  fol 
lowing  brief  account  of  a  bear  hunt  with  Merrifield : 

"We  could  follow  the  tracks  by  the  slight  scrapes  of 
the  claws  on  the  bark,  or  by  bent  and  broken  twigs;  and 
we  advanced  with  noiseless  caution,  slowly  climbing  over 
dead  trunks  and  upturned  stumps,  and  not  letting  a 
branch  rustle  or  catch  our  clothes.  When  in  the  middle 
of  the  thicket  we  crossed  what  was  almost  a  breastwork  of 
fallen  logs,  and  Merrifield,  whq  was  leading,  paused  by  the 
upright  stem  of  a  large  pine. 

"And  there,  not  ten  stej^s  off,  was  the  great  bear, 
slowly  rising  from  his  bed  arqiong  the  young  spruces.  He 
had  heard  us,  but  apparently  hardly  knew  where  or  what 
we  were,  for  he  reared  up  on  his  haunches  sidewise  to  us. 
Then  he  saw  us,  and  dropped  down  again  on  all  fours,  the 
shaggy  hair  on  his  neck  and  shoulders  seeming  to  bristle 
as  he  turned  to  us.  As  he  sank  down  on  his  forefeet  I 
raised  the  rifle.  His  head  was  bent  slightly  down,  and 
when  I  saw  the  top  of  his  white  head  fairly  between  the 
small,  glittering,  evil  eyes,  I  pulled  the  trigger.  Half  rising 
up,  the  huge  beast  fell  over  on  the  side  in  the  death- 


THE   ELKHORN   RANCH  81 

throes,  the  ball  having  gone  into  his  brain,  striking  as 
fairly  between  the  eyes  as  if  the  distance  had  been  meas 
ured  by  a  carpenter's  rule.  The  whole  thing  was  over 
in  twenty  seconds  from  the  time  I  sighted  the  game.' ' 

He  describes  another  hunt,  in  Idaho,  where  he  was 
less  fortunate,  and  had  a  narrow  escape  from  taking  the 
bear's  place  as  victim.  This  account  also  shows  his  vivid 
style  of  writing.  After  relating  how  he  found  the  grizzly, 
he  continues: 

"I  held  true,  aiming  behind  the  shoulder,  and  my  bul 
let  shattered  the  point  or  lower  end  of  his  heart,  taking  out 
a  big  nick.  Instantly  the  great  bear  turned  with  a  hoarse 
roar  of  fury  and  challenge,  blowing  the  bloody  foam  from 
his  mouth,  so  that  I  saw  the  gleam  of  his  white  fangs;  and 
then  he  charged  straight  at  me,  crashing  and  bounding 
through  the  laurel  bushes,  so  that  it  was  hard  to  aim. 

"I  waited  till  he  came  to  a  fallen  tree,  raking  him,  as 
he  topped  it,  with  a  ball  which  entered  his  chest  and  went 
through  the  cavity  of  his  body;  but  he  neither  swerved  nor 
flinched,  and  at  the  moment  I  did  not  know  that  I  had 
struck  him.  He  came  steadily  on,  and  in  another  moment 
was  almost  upon  me.  I  fired  for  his  forehead,  but  my  bul 
let  went  low,  smashing  his  lower  jaw  and  going  into  the 
neck.  I  leaped  to  one  side  almost  as  I  pulled  the  trigger, 
and  through  the  hanging  smoke  the  first  thing  I  saw  was 
his  paw,  as  he  made  a  vicious  side  blow  at  me. 

"The  rush  of  the  charge  carried  him  past.  As  he 
struck  he  lurched  forward,  leaving  a  pool  of  bright  blood 
where  his  muzzle  hit  the  ground,  but  he  recovered  him 
self  and  made  two  or  three  jumps  onward,  while  I  hur 
riedly  jammed  a  couple  of  cartridges  into  the  magazine, 
my  rifle  holding  but  four,  all  of  which  I  had  fired.  Then 
he  tried  to  pull  up;  but  as  he  did  so,  his  muscles  seemed 


82  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  give  way,  his  head  dropped,  and  he  rolled  over  and  over 
like  a  shot  rabbit.  Each  of  my  first  two  bullets  had  in 
flicted  a  mortal  wound." 

Roosevelt  the  hunter  was  also  Roosevelt  the  lover 
of  nature,  and  it  was  his  hunting  experiences  that  enabled 
him  to  give  some  of  his  most  beautiful  descriptions  of 
nature.  Take,  for  instance,  this  description  of  the  Bad 
Lands,  which  not  only  shows  his  skill  in  word  painting,  but 
his  love  for  nature  as  she  exhibits  herself  in  the  great  bare 
places  of  the  world: 

"The  tracks  led  into  one  of  the  wildest  and  most  deso 
late  parts  of  the  Bad  Lands.  It  was  now  the  heat  of  the 
day,  the  brazen  sun  shining  out  of  a  cloudless  sky,  and  not 
the  least  breeze  stirring.  At  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  in 
the  deep,  narrow  bed  of  the  winding  watercourse,  lay  a 
few  tepid  little  pools  almost  dried  up.  Thick  groves  of 
stunted  cedars  stood  here  and  there  in  the  glen-like  pockets 
of  the  high  buttes,  the  peaks  and  sides  of  which  were  bare, 
and  only  their  lower,  terrace-like  ledges  thinly  clad  with 
coarse,  withered  grass  and  sprawling  sage-brush;  the 
parched  hillsides  were  riven  by  deep,  twisted  gorges,  with 
brushwood  on  the  bottoms;  and  the  cliffs  of  coarse  clay 
were  cleft  and  seamed  by  sheer-sided,  canon-like  gullies. 

"In  the  narrow  ravines,  closed  in  by  barren,  sun-baked 
walls,  the  hot  air  stood  still  and  sultry;  the  only  living 
things  were  the  rattlesnakes,  and  of  these  I  have  never 
elsewhere  seen  so  many.  Some  basked  in  the  sun,  stretched 
out  at  their  ugly  length  of  mottled  brown  and  yellow. 
Others  lay  half  under  stones  or  twisted  in  the  roots  of 
the  sage-brush,  and  looked  straight  at  me  with  that 
strange,  sullen,  evil  gaze,  never  shifting  or  moving,  that 
is  the  property  only  of  serpents — and  certain  men — while 
one  or  two  coiled  and  rattled  menacingly  as  I  stepped  near.' 5 


THE    ELKHORN    RANCH  83 

But  the  lover  of  nature  was  also  lover  of  the  chase  for 
the  joy  of  it. 

"No  one/ '  he  writes,  "but  he  who  has  partaken  thereof 
can  understand  the  keen  delight  of  hunting  in  lonely  lands. 
For  him  it  is  the  joy  of  the  horse  well  ridden  and  the  rifle 
well  held;  for  him  the  long  days  of  toil  and  hardship  reso 
lutely  endured,  and  crowned  at  the  end  with  triumph. 
In  after  years  there  shall  come  forever  to  his  mind  the 
memory  of  endless  prairies  shimmering  in  the  bright  sun; 
of  vast  snow-clad  wastes  lying  desolate  under  gray  skies ; 
of  the  melancholy  marshes;  of  the  rush  of  mighty  rivers; 
of  the  breath  of  the  evergreen  forest  in  summer;  of  the 
crooning  of  ice-armored  pines  at  the  touch  of  the  winds  of 
winter;  of  cataracts  roaring  between  hoary  mountain 
masses;  of  all  the  innumerable  sights  and  sounds  of  the 
wilderness;  of  its  immensity  and  misery;  and  of  the  silences 
that  brood  in  its  still  depths." 


CHAPTER  VI 

ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  CIVIL  SERVICE 

WHILE  Roosevelt  was  more  than  half  immersed 
in  his  ranch  life  and  in  his  book  writing,  he  still 
found  time  f OK  political  activity.  In  1886  he 
received  the  Republican  nomination  for  Mayor  of  New 
York  City.  The  contest,  for  several  reasons,  was  hope 
less  from  the  start.  Cleveland  was  at  that  time  in  the 
middle  of  his  first  presidential  term  and  his  personal 
popularity,  of  course,  contributed  to  the  strength  of  his 
party  throughout  the  country.  New  York  was  naturally 
a  Democratic  city,  and  the  Tammany  braves  were  strong 
and  well  organized.  And  lastly,  Henry  George,  the  father 
of  the  single  tax  movement,  whose  writings  had  brought 
him  into  considerable  prominence,  was  the  nominee  of  an 
independent  third  party  which  recruited  its  strength 
largely  from  the  Republican  ranks.  In  the  face  of  these 
difficulties,  Roosevelt  accepted  the  nomination  and  made 
a  spirited  campaign.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  the  Democratic 
nominee,  won  an  easy  victory,  receiving  ninety  thousand 
votes,  while  George  received  sixty-eight  thousand  and 
Roosevelt  sixty  thousand. 

After  the  election  of  Harrison  in  1888,  Roosevelt 
hoped  to  be  made  Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  He  was 
politically  ambitious  and  was  at  that  time  particularly 
interested  in  our  foreign  relations.  But  Blaine,  the  Sec 
retary  of  State,  did  not  fancy  such  an  appointment,  and 
Roosevelt  consequently  failed  to  secure  it;  instead,  Presi 
dent  Harrison  offered  him  an  appointment  as  one  of  the 

(84) 


THE  CIVIL /SERVICE  85 

three  Commissioners  of  tlJeyUnited  States  Civil  Service. 
Many  of  his  friends  were  rather  surprised  when  he 
accepted,  because  it  was  generally  supposed  that  the 
Service  Commission  was  a  political  graveyard. 
The  work  done  by  the  Commission  offered  little  opportu 
nity  for  winning  political  advancement,  because  it  lacked 
spectacular  possibilities  and  because  an  honest  enforcement 
of  the  law  necessarily  involved  conflicts  with  the  powers 
upon  whom  preferment  almost  necessarily  depended. 

Roosevelt,  however,  accepted  the  appointment  and 
at  once  threw  himself  with  ardor  into  the  work  of  the 
Commission.  As  a  member  of  the  New  York  Legislature 
he  had,  in  1883,  drafted  a  Civil  Service  bill  in  New  York; 
This  bill  and  the  act  of  Congress  creating  a  real  federal 
merit  system  were  approved  by  Governor  Cleveland  andi 
by  President  Arthur  respectively,  at  about  the  same  time.  \ 
Ever  since  the  beginning  of  his  public  career  Roosevelt 
has  been  a  staunch  supporter  of  civil  service  reform.  The 
evils  of  the  spoils  system  were  not  then  so  obvious  to  the 
average  citizen  as  they  are  now.  Beginning  with  the 
administration  of  President  Jackson  it  had  been  the  uni 
versal  practice  when  an  administration  of  one  party  was 
succeeded  by  another  to  make  a  clean  sweep  of  all  offices 
within  the  appointive  power  of  the  President.  When 
Cleveland  and  Hendricks  were  elected  in  1884,  Hen- 
dricks  rejoiced  his  followers  by  the  statement  that  "he 
wished  to  take  the  boys  in  out  of  the  cold  to  warm  their 
toes."  Their  toes  had  been  cold  for  twenty-four  years  and 
they  were,  of  course,  more  than  eager  to  get  close  to  the  fire. 

Hendricks'  wish  was  gratified.  During  Cleveland's 
first  administration,  for  instance,  all  of  the  railway  mail 
service  employees  who  were  Republicans  were  turned  out 
and  Democrats  were  put  in  their  places.  The  natural 


86  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

result  of  this  action  was  an  utter  demoralization  of  the 
railway  mail  service.  Four  years  later  the  Republicans 
came  back  into  power  and  promptly  reversed  the  process 
by  sweeping  out  the  Democrats.  Fortunately,  the  pro 
visions  of  the  Civil  Service  law  we,re  made  applicable  to 
the  railway  mail  service  before  this  last  process  had  been 
completed;  but  the  party  in  power  took  advantage  of  the 
short  time  at  their  disposal  to  get  rid  of  as  many  of  their 
political  enemies  as  possible.  This  system  of  removal  and 
appointment  had  no  relation  whatever  to  the  efficiency  of 
the  government  employees  nor  to  the  good  of  the  service, 
and  certainly  justified  Roosevelt's  statement  that  the 
spoils  system  "has  been  for  seventy  years  the  most  po 
tent  of  all  forces  tending  to  bring  about  the  degradation 
of  our  politics." 

His  fellow  Commissioners  were  Charles  Lyman  of 
Connecticut  and  Hugh  S.  Thompson,  ex-Governor  of 
South  Carolina.  Thompson  was  later  succeeded  by 
George  D.  Johnston  of  Louisiana,  who  was  in  turn  suc 
ceeded  by  John  R.  Proctor  of  Kentucky.  During  the 
six  years  of  Roosevelt's  service,  the  Commission  pursued 
its  course  with  a  single-minded  devotion  to  the  public 
welfare.  In  1889  only  a  fraction  of  the  government  em 
ployees  fell  within  the  scope  of  the  Civil  Service  act;  this 
fraction  formed  what  was  known  as  the  classified  service. 
It  was  the  constant  aim  of  the  Commission  to  extend  the 
classified  service  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  in  addition, 
of  course,  to  see  that  the  law  was  administered  thoroughly 
and  fairly.  The  system  of  competitive  examinations 
which  was  then  comparatively  new  was  not  in  Roosevelt's 
opinion  perfect,  but  it  was  better  than  any  other  system 
which  had  yet  been  devised  and  the  results  obtained  from 
its  use  were  almost  uniformly  excellent. 


THE   CIVIL  SERVICE  87 

In  enforcing  the  Civil  Service  law  the  Commissioners 
adhered  to  three  principles:  publicity,  absolute  political 
impartiality,  and  continual  investigation  by  the  Com 
mission.  Under  the  preceding  Commission  there  had 
been  an  honest  attempt  to  enforce  the  law  but  its  unpop 
ularity  with  members  of  Congress  had  led  the  president 
of  the  Commission  to  avoid  publicity  as  much  as  possible. 
He  felt  that  to  advertise  its  work  was  simply  to  invite 
unjust  criticism,  and  so  he  and  his  associates  performed 
their  labors  as  inconspicuously  as  they  could.  Under 
the  regime  of  the  new  Commissioners  this  was  entirely 
reversed.  Their  theory  was  that  since  the  Civil  Service  Act 
was  a  source  of  great  good  to  the  country,  to  advertise 
it  was  to  insure  its  popularity.  They  accordingly  took 
every  occasion  not  only  to  advertise  the  holding  of  exam 
inations  but  to  publish  the  names  of  successful  candidates 
and  to  invite  an  inspection  of  the  records  of  their  office  by 
anyone  who  had  a  proper  motive  for  inspecting  them. 

Under  the  Civil  Service  law  each  state  was  permitted 
a  certain  quota  of  appointees  in  the  classified  service. 
During  the  first  six  years  of  the  operation  of  the  act  all 
of  the  Southern  states  had  continually  been  far  behind 
in  their  quotas,  due  apparently  to  the  prevalent  idea  that 
in  making  appointments  the  old  system  of  political 
influence  must  still  be  the  controlling  one.  In  the  summer 
of  1890,  Congress  passed  an  act  which  created  six  hundred 
new  clerkships  at  Washington.  The  Commission  imme 
diately  seized  upon  this  opportunity  to  push  the  cause  of 
civil  service  in  the  South.  They  advertised  the  coming 
examinations  extensively  in  the  Southern  papers  and  took 
pains  to  point  out  that  the  appointees  would  be  selected 
from  those  wiio  passed  the  highest  examinations  and  that 
no  candidate  need  fear  adverse  political  influence.  Roose- 


88  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

velt  called  a  meeting  of  the  Southern  Congressmen  and 
of  reporters  from  the  Southern  newspapers  in  his  office 
and  impressed  upon  them  the  fact  that  the  examinations 
and  recommendations  for  appointment  would  be  con 
ducted  without  any  regard  whatever  for  the  political 
affiliations  of  those  who  came  forward  to  be  examined. 
The  result  was  encouraging.  Southern  aspirants  for  clerk 
ships  plucked  up  heart  and  took  the  examinations  in  very 
considerable  numbers,  with  the  result  that  nearly  three 
hundred  of  the  six  hundred  clerks  were  appointed  from 
the  South.  Most  of  these  three  hundred  were,  of  course, 
Democrats,  and  the  fact  that  they  were  appointed  under 
a  Republican  administration  went  far  to  upset  the  popular 
Southern  prejudice  against  the  Civil  Service  Commission. 

If  the  law  were  to  be  properly  enforced,  it  was  of 
course  necessary  for  the  Commissioners  to  keep  a  constant 
watch  upon  the  governmental  offices  which  fell  within 
the  classified  service.  A  large  part  of  their  work,  there 
fore,  consisted  in  making  investigations,  either  personally 
or  by  agent,  which  resulted  more  than  once  in  recommen 
dations  for  the  removal  of  government  appointees  who  had 
abused  the  opportunities  of  their  positions.  Roosevelt 
himself  preferred  personal  investigations  where  possible. 
He  said  that  he  could  get  more  information  by  a  few 
minutes'  talk  with  the  clerk  who  had  charge  of  the  business 
under  discussion  than  by  a  fortnight's  formal  corre 
spondence  with  the  head  of  the  department. 

One  of  these  investigations  led  to  an  incident  which 
was  the  source  of  considerable  comment  at  the  time. 
Serious  frauds  had  been  practiced  at  the  postoffice  in 
Milwaukee,  especially  in  the  appointment  of  clerks  with 
out  reference  to  the  merit  system.  Roosevelt  investi 
gated  the  matter  and  soon  found  that  the  blame  largely 


5  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

HUNTING  IN  THE  ROCKIES 

Mr.  Roosevelt  on  one  of  his  later  hunting  trips  in  the  Rocky  Mountains 
where  much  big  game  fell  to  his  accurate  eye  and  steady  hand.  He  was  long 
famous  in  the  West  as  one  of  the  bravest,  pluckiest  hunters  for  big  game  in  all 
that  country. 


THE   CIVIL  SERVICE  89 

centered  upon  a  member  of  the  local  civil  service  board 
in  Milwaukee,  named  Shidy,  who  had  had  access  to  the 
papers  "of  the  Commission.  Roosevelt  therefore  inter 
viewed  Shidy  personally  and  soon  convinced  himself  that 
he  had  gone  to  the  right  man  to  get  the  information  he 
needed.  Shidy  refused  to  talk  unless  he  was  promised 
immunity  and  the  retention  of  his  place  in  the  postoffice. 
The  Commissioner  decided  that  it  was  important  to  get 
the  man's  testimony  and  accordingly  gave  him  the 
required  assurance.  Shidy  then  told  his  story,  which 
resulted  in  the  dismissal  of  the  Milwaukee  postmaster. 
Shortly  thereafter  Shidy  was  himself  dismissed.  Roosevelt, 
in  order  to  fulfil  his  promise,  tried  hard  to  have  him  rein 
stated,  and,  failing  in  this,  procured  him  a  clerkship  in 
the  census  office  which  did  not  fall  within  the  classi 
fied  service.  One  of  the  Washington  newspapers  learned 
how  Shidy  had  been  taken  care  of  and  published  a  series  of 
sensational  charges  against  the  Commission  alleging, 
among  other  things,  that  Roosevelt  himself  was  one  of 
the  worst  of  spoilsmen.  The  Commissioner's  answer  to 
this  was  to  demand  an  immediate  investigation,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  frankly  told  the  whole  story.  As  a 
result  of  this  investigation  the  congressional  committee 
fully  supported  him  and  in  their  findings  endorsed  the 
action  he  had  taken. 

Most  of  the  examinations  held  under  the  Civil  Service 
act  were,  of  course,  written.  Separate  examinations  were 
held  then  as  now  for  different  positions.  For  letter  car 
riers,  for  instance,  one  test  was  in  reading  addresses,  and 
in  this  test  they  were  marked  partly  for  speed  and  partly 
for  accuracy  in  their  reading.  Candidates  for  govern 
ment  inspectorships,  on  the  other  hand,  were  subjected  to 
examinations  bearing  directly  upon  the  work  which  they 


90  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

would  be  called  upon  to  do.  In  one  examination,  for 
example,  they  were  presented  with  this  problem:  "Some 
person  will  be  pointed  out  to  you  for  description;  notice 
him  carefully  and  then  write  as  brief  a  telegram  as  pos 
sible  to  the  United  States  Marshal  at  Baltimore  notifying 
him  that  this  man  will  arrive  on  a  designated  train  and 
that  a  wrarrant  is  out  for  his  arrest  on  the  charge  of 
embezzling  postal  funds."  Roosevelt  suggested  that 
customs  inspectors  on  the  Texas  border  should  pass  a 
practical  examination  in  horsemanship  and  in  the  han 
dling  of  a  revolver,  but  the  suggestion  was  not  adopted  at 
the  time.  It  is  interesting  to  find  that,  a  good  many 
years  later,  applicants  for  this  position  were  required 
to  produce  special  vouchers  of  their  proficiency  in 
the  branches  whose  importance  Roosevelt  had  thus 
emphasized. 

His  attitude  on  the  subject  of  promotion  was  a  shock 
to  many  of  his  friends  among  the  civil  service  reformers. 
During  his  service  on  the  Commission  there  was  no  occa 
sion  for  making  his  position  in  this  matter  public,  because 
the  Commission  had  no  control  over  appointments  or 
removals.  But  when  he  became  one  of  the  Police  Commis 
sioners  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  question  became  a 
vital  one  for  him.  He  said  himself  that  in  his  position  in 
the  matter  he  split  from  the  bulk  of  his  "professional 
civil  service  reform  friends."  "The  reason,"  he  says, 
"for  a  written  competitive  entrance  examination  is  that 
it  is  impossible  for  the  head  of  the  office,  or  the  candidate's 
prospective  immediate  superior  himself,  to  know  the  aver 
age  candidate  or  to  test  his  ability.  But  when  once  in 
office,  the  best  way  to  test  any  man's  ability  is  by  long 
experience  in  seeing  him  actually  at  work.  His  promotion 
should  depend  upon  the  judgment  formed  of  him  by 


THE   CIVIL  SERVICE  91 

his  superiors."  He  felt  that  the  matter  of  civil  service 
reform  was  purely  practical.  He  advocated  competitive 
examinations  because  he  believed  that  they  advanced 
the  interests  of  the  public  service,  but  he  had  no  particular 
interest  in  competitive  examinations  for  their  own  sake, 
and  did  not  feel  that  any  moral  principle  was  irrevocably 
associated  with  them.  He  could  think  of  no  better  system 
for  selecting  non-political  subordinates,  and,  therefore,  he 
went  with  the  civil  service  reformers  in  advocating  a 
method  of  initial  selection  by  examination;  but  when  it 
came  to  promotion,  experience  had  shown  him  that  exam 
inations  were  of  little  use  and  he  therefore  did  not  hesitate 
to  abandon  them. 

The  Civil  Service  Commissioners  under  Harrison  and 
Cleveland  did  not  get  very  much  assistance  from  the 
White  House.  Both  of  these  Presidents  were  in  favor  of 
the  system,  but  they  hesitated  in  extending  it  because  to 
do  so  necessarily  involved  conflict  with  their  party 
leaders.  But  in  the  House  and  Senate  there  were  several 
ardent  champions  of  the  cause  of  civil  service  reform. 
During  Roosevelt's  term  of  office  there  were  many  lively 
tilts  in  Congress  with  respect  to  the  operation  of  the 
Civil  Service  act  and  the  very  existence  of  the  Commis 
sion  was  more  than  once  threatened. 

The  favorite  method  adopted  by  the  opponents  of  the 
system  was  to  attempt  to  cut  off  the  annual  appropriation 
for  the  work  of  the  Commission.  On  one  occasion  they 
failed  to  cut  the  appropriation  entirely  but  succeeded  in 
considerably  reducing  the  amount  needed  for  the  expense 
of  conducting  the  examinations.  Roosevelt's  answer  to 
this  was  characteristic.  He  found  out  which  Congress 
men  had  refused  to  vote  the  necessary  money  and  then 
sent  for  the  schedule  of  examinations.  He  carefully  struck 


92  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

out  from  the  list  of  districts  where  examinations  would 
be  held  the  districts  which  these  men  represented. 
Having  done  this,  he  called  in  the  newspaper  reporters 
and  gave  the  matter  due  publicity,  explaining  just  what 
he  had  done  and  why  he  had  done  it.  There  was  loud 
complaint  of  his  action  by  the  offended  Congressmen  but 
in  the  future  the  Commission  got  the  money  that  it 
needed. 

Senator  Gorman  of  Maryland  was,  during  Cleveland's 
administration,  the  leader  of  the  majority  party  in  the 
Senate.  He  was  a  strong  opponent  of  the  merit  system. 
One  day  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate  he  attacked  the  Com 
mission  and  told  the  pathetic  story  of  a  "bright  young 
man  in  the  city  of  Baltimore"  who  had  taken  the  exami 
nation  for  the  position  of  letter  carrier.  The  bright  young 
man,  according  to  the  Senator,  had  been  asked  to  tell 
the  most  direct  route  from  Baltimore  to  Japan,  together 
with  several  other  questions  equally  irrelevant.  Roose 
velt  happened  to  read  the  speech  as  soon  as  it  was  pub 
lished  and  immediately  wrote  the  Senator  asking  him  to 
give  the  date  and  place  of  the  examination,  and  inviting 
him  to  inspect  all  of  the  Commission's  examination  papers 
for  letter  carriers  to  see  \vhether  he  could  find  the  partic 
ular  questions  to  which  he  had  alluded  in  his  speech.  The 
Senator  was  unable  to  give  the  particulars  and  did  not 
accept  the  invitation  to  inspect  the  examination  papers. 
The  incident  was  closed  by  a  characteristic  public  letter 
from  Roosevelt  which  ended  thus: 

"High-minded,  sensitive  Mr.  Gorman!  Clinging, 
trustful  Mr.  Gorman!  Nothing  could  shake  his  belief  in 
that  'bright  young  man.5  Apparently,  he  did  not  even 
try  to  find  out  his  name — if  he  had  a  name;  in  fact,  his 
name,  like  everything  else  about  him,  remains  to  this  day 


THE   CIVIL   SERVICE  93 

wrapped  in  the  Stygian  mantle  of  an  abysmal  mystery, 
Still  less  has  Mr.  Gorman  tried  to  verify  the  statements 
made  to  him.  It  is  enough  for  him  that  they  were  made. 
No  harsh  suspicion,  no  stern  demand  for  evidence  or  proof, 
appeals  to  his  artless  and  unspoiled  soul.  He  believes 
whatever  he  is  told,  even  when  he  has  forgotten  the  name 
of  the  teller,  or  never  knew  it.  It  would  indeed  be  difficult 
to  find  an  instance  of  a  more  abiding  confidence  in  human 
nature — even  in  anonymous  human  nature.  And  this  is 
the  end  of  the  tale  of  Arcadian  Mr.  Gorman  and  his  elusive 
friend,  the  bright  young  man  without  a  name!" 

During  the  sessions  of  the  Fifty-third  Congress,  Rep 
resentative  Bynum  of  Indiana  introduced  a  bill  which 
provided  that  all  the  Democrats  who  had  been  turned 
out  of  the  railway  mail  service  by  the  Republicans  more 
than  four  years  ago  should  be  reinstated.  The  bill  received 
the  solid  support  of  the  Democrats  and  passed  the  House. 
In  the  Senate  it  was  pushed  by  Senator  Vilas  of  Wiscon 
sin  and  only  failed  through  the  vigilance  of  Senator  Lodge, 
who  was  a  warm  friend  both  of  Commissioner  Roosevelt 
and  of  the  merit  system.  The  bill  had  been  referred  to 
the  committee  of  which  Vilas  was  chairman.  When  he 
reported  it  to  the  Senate  he  asked  for  its  consideration  by 
unanimous  consent  and  for  its  passage  on  the  ground 
that  it  related  to  a  matter  of  small  importance.  When 
the  bill  was  read  the  words  "classified  civil  service" 
caught  Senator  Lodge's  ear  and  he  insisted  upon  an 
explanation.  On  finding  out  the  true  subject-matter  of 
the  bill  Lodge  refused  to  join  in  the  unanimous  consent 
for  its  consideration,  with  the  result  that  the  pressure  of 
other  business  prevented  it  from  coming  up  that  session. 
Had  the  bill  passed  it  would  have  formed  a  very  danger 
ous  precedent. 


94  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

On  another  occasion  an  attempt  was  made  by  the 
enemies  of  the  Commission  to  hinder  its  work  by  reducing 
the  salary  of  the  secretary.  Congressman  Breckenridge 
of  Kentucky,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  upon  the 
annual  appropriation  bill,  objected,  upon  a  technical  par 
liamentary  ground,  to  the  item  which  appropriated 
$2,000  to  the  secretary  of  the  Commission,  and  caused  the 
bill  to  be  passed  carrying  an  appropriation  for  only  $1,600 
for  this  particular  position.  The  same  parliamentary 
objection  applied  equally  to  the  salaries  of  twenty  or 
thirty  other  officers,  including  the  President's  private 
secretary  and  the  First  Assistant  Postmaster  General. 
Their  salaries,  however,  were  not  touched  by  the  House. 
When  the  matter  reached  the  Senate,  Senator  Lodge  and 
his  friends  were  ready  and  they  made  such  a  determined 
fight  that  the  salary  was  put  back  at  $2,000,  and  the  bill 
eventually  became  a  law  in  that  form. 

One  of  Roosevelt's  last  acts  as  Civil  Service  Commis 
sioner  was  to  write  a  letter  to  Judson  Grenell,  of  Detroit, 
on  April  25,  1895,  by  which  he  put  an  end  to  an  amusing 
and  illuminating  controversy  between  Mr.  Grenell  and  the 
Commission.  It  appeared  that  Grenell,  who  was  a  news 
paper  man,  had  taken  the  examination  for  the  position  of 
assistant  statistican  for  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Of  the  twelve  men  who  took  the  examination  Grenell, 
writh  a  grade  of  forty-four,  stood  eleventh.  He  objected 
to  the  marking  of  the  papers  and  to  the  recommendation 
of  the  Commissioners,  and  wrote  them,  asking  for  the 
averages  of  the  other  men  who  had  taken  the  examination, 
and  pointing  out  what  he  considered  serious  defects  in  the 
administration  of  the  Civil  Service  act.  To  Roosevelt 
was  assigned  the  duty  of  answering,  and  he  did  so  with 
evident  delight.  First,  he  gave  his  correspondent  all  the 


THE   CIVIL  SERVICE  95 

grades,  beginning  with  ninety  and  ending  with  forty-two, 
and  carefully  pointed  out  that  there  was  only  one  man 
who  stood  lower  than  Mr.  Grenell  in  the  final  rating. 
He  corrected  the  statement  that  there  was  "a  rising  tide 
of  public  opinion  against  the  system  of  competitive  exam 
inations"  by  pointing  to  the  results  of  recent  elections  in 
Chicago  and  New  York  State  which  had  endorsed  the 
merit  system.  He  showed  that  the  proficiency  of  the 
railway  mail  service,  as  measured  by  the  percentage  of 
correct  routings,  had  almost  tripled  within  the  past 
five  years  and  he  ended  with  this  statement  which  was 
undoubtedly  correct: 

"The  past  year  has  witnessed  greater  progress  toward 
the  full  accomplishment  of  the  reform  idea  in  national, 
city  and  municipal  governments,  taken  as  a  whole,  than 
in  any  other  year  since  the  original  law  was  passed.' ' 

Roosevelt  served  four  years  under  President  Harrison 
and  discharged  the  duties  |>Miis  office  so  impartially  and 
with  such  an  entire  disregam  of  political  affiliations  that  he  ; 
was  reappointed  by  President  Cleveland,  and  served  under 
him  until,  in  1895,  he  resigned  to  become  one  of  the  Police 
Commissioners  of  the  city  of  New  York.  During  his  six 
years  as  Commissioner  fourteen  thousand  positions  had 
been  added  to  the  classified  service,  and  the  total  number 
of  offices  falling  within  the  scope  of  the  Commissioners' 
activities  had  increased  from  twenty-one  thousand  to  __ 
nearly  fifty  thousand.  What  was  more  important,  the 
methods  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  and  the  possi 
bilities  of  the  classified  service  had  been  widely  adver 
tised  and  had  won  popular  approval.  In  a  public  state 
ment  made  after  he  had  left  the  Commission,  he  said: 

"People  sometimes  grow  a  little  downhearted  about 
the  reform.  When  they  feel  in  this  mood  it  would  be  well 


96  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

for  them  to  reflect  on  what  has  actually  been  gained  in  the 
past  six  years.  By  the  inclusion  of  the  railway  mail 
service,  the  smaller  free  delivery  offices,  the  Indian  school 
service,  the  internal  revenue  service,  and  other  less  im 
portant  branches,  the  extent  of  the  public  service  which 
is  under  the  protection  of  the  law  has  been  more  than 
doubled,  and  there  are  now  nearly  fifty  thousand  em 
ployees  of  the  Federal  government  who  have  been  with 
drawn  from  the  degrading  influences  that  rule  under  the 
spoils  system." 

When,  six  years  later,  Roosevelt  became  President,  he 
still  had,  in  full  measure,  the  interest  in  the  merit  system 
which  had  been  his  since  he  entered  politics.  In  his  first 


message  to  Congress  he  urged  the  extension  of  the  system 
to  the  insular  possessions,  and  ih yKis  second  annual  mes 
sage  urged  that  it  should  be  extended  to  the  District  of 
Columbia.  By  executive  orders,  made  at  various  times 
during  his  administration,  he  was  able  to  accomplish  much 
that  Congress  had  failed  to  do.  For  instance,  he  wished 
Congress  to  bring  United  States  consuls  within  the  clas 
sified  service,  and  upon  their  failure  to  do  so,  he  issued  an 
executive  order  requiring  applications  for  the  position  of 
consul  in  certain  grades  to  take  competitive  examinations. 
Similar  orders  covered  many  laborers  in  government 
employ.  In  addition  to  adding  to  the  classified  service  the 
President  promulgated  other  rules  which  increased  the 
efficiency  of  the  Commission.  He  forbade  employees 
within  the  classified  service  to  engage  actively  in  politics 
and  directed  that  recommendations  for  promotion  must 
come  in  every  case  from  a  man's  superior  instead  of  from 
his  political  friends.  During  his  presidency  the  Civil 
Service  Commission  reported  that  the  number  of  classi 
fied  positions  subject  to  competitive  examinations  had 


THE   CIVIL  SERVICE  97 

nearly  doubled,  having  grown  from  110,000  in  1901  to 
206,000  in  1908. 

During  his  six  years  on  the  Civil  Service  Commission, 
Roosevelt  had  abundant  practical  experience  in  the  oper 
ation  of  the  merit  system,  experience  which  was  to  stand 
him  in  good  stead  in  later  Jife  as  Police  Commissioner,    \ 
Governor  and  President.  ^He  always  remained  a  firm    K 
friend  of  civil  service  reform,  but  he  had,  in  1895,  begun     n 
to  see  that  civil  service  reform  was  not  enough.     He  saw      • 
the  signs  of  a  great  national  awakening  which  was  to 
concern  itself  not  simply  with  political  conditions  but 
with  social  and  industrial  justice.    In  this  awakening,  he 
himself  was  destined  to  take  the  leading  part. 


CHAPTER  VIX 

POLICE  COMMISSIONER 

THE  head  of  a  great  police  force  in  a  modern  city 
may  be  perfectly  honest,  and  yet  his  conception  of 
his  full  duty  may  be  to  do  no  more  than  to  sit  at 
his  desk  day  after  day  receiving  reports  from  his  subor 
dinates.    Theodore  RooseveltYwas/not  that  kind  of  a  police 
head.    He  made  a  great  succesfe  di  his  position  as  president 


of  the  Board  of  Police  Commissioners  of  New  York  City, 
because,  while  he  did  not  neglect  his  desk,  he  went  out 
and  got  at  essential  facts  for  himself.  He  knew  his  force, 
not  only  his  captains  and  lieutenants,  but  a  large  number 
of  his  sergeants  and  roundsmen  and  patrolmen.  The  re 
forms  which  he  instituted  and  carried  out  were  based  not 
merely  on  reports  but  on  personal  knowledge  of  conditions. 
No  man  knew  better  than  he  the  value  of  arousing  public 
attention  by  striking  and  vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  an 
executive.  In  the  two  years  that  he  was  Police  Commis 
sioner  there  were  not  many  days  when  the  pugnacious 
and  forceful  head  of  the  police  did  not  furnish  the  reporters 
with  interesting  copy  and  the  city  editors  with  headlines. 
During  the  early  '90's,  political  corruption  in  New 
York  City  had  reached  its  high-water  mark.  Under 
the  dominance  of  Richard  Croker,  Tammany  Hall 
owned  the  city,  body  and  soul.  Every  official,  from  the 
policeman  on  his  beat  to  the  judge  on  the  bench,  was 
compelled  not  only  to  contribute  to  the  Tammany  war 
chest,  but  to  discharge  his  official  duties  in  the  manner 
dictated  by  Mr.  Croker  and  his  lieutenants.  The  greatest 

(98) 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  99 

evils  were  centered  in  the  administration  of  the  police 
force.  Here  the  possibilities  for  blackmail  were  almost 
unlimited.  The  proprietors  of  disorderly  houses  and  those 
interested  in  the  liquor  trade  had  formed  with  the  police 
a  conspiracy  by  virtue  of  which  they  were  permitted  to 
violate  the  law  in  return  for  their  political  support  and  for 
a  share  in  the  profits  of  their  unlawful  business. 

While  the  Democratic  party  controlled  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  Republicans  usually  had  a  working  majority 
in  the  state.  This  fact  gave  rise  to  the  conditions  under 
which  Roosevelt's  appointment  as  Police  Commissioner 
became  possible.  Curing  the  legislative  session  of  1894, 
the  Republican  majority  procured  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  investigate  political  conditions  in  New  York 
City.  Senator  Lixow  was  made  the  chairman  of  this 
committee.  Numerous  hearings  were  held,  in  the  course 
of  which  there  occurred  revelations  of  the  most  startling 
nature. 

From  the  testimony  it  appeared  that  it  was  the  prac 
tice  to  sell  appointments  to  office  at  fixed  figures.  For 
instance,  the  regular  charge  for  an  appointment  as  patrol 
man  was  $300.00.  The  subordinates  thus  appointed  re 
couped  themselves  by  collecting  blackmail  from  liquor 
dealers  and  from  the  keepers  of  disorderly  houses.  The 
system  became  Jo  businesslike  that  saloon-keepers  who 
wished  to  remain  open  on  Sunday  were  privileged  to  do  so, 
in  spite  of  the  law,  upon  payment  of  a  fixed  sum.  The 
game  of  policy  flourished  within  prescribed  geographical 
limits,  each  one  of  which  was  assigned  to  a  "policy  king" 
who  handled  the  business  and  paid  the  necessary  black 
mail  to  the  police.  Shoeblacks,  and  push-cart  and  fruit 
venders  were  permitted  to  obstruct  the  streets  and  side 
walks  upon  payment  of  money  for  the  privilege.  A  regu- 


100  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

lar  initiation  fee  was  charged  by  the  police,  and  thereafter 
annual  dues  were  levied  and  in  most  cases  readily  paid. 

As  a  result  of  these  exposures,  the  independents  and 
the  Republicans  of  the  city  combined  in  the  fall  of  1894 
and  succeeded  in  ousting  Tammany  and  in  electing  Col 
onel  William  L.  Strong  as  mayor  of  the  city.  Strong  was 
the  first  reform  mayor  who  had  ever  taken  office  in  New 
York  and  he  made  such  use  of  his  opportunities  as  circum 
stances  permitted.  He  offered  the  position  of  Chief  of 
the  Street  Cleaning  Bureau  to  Roosevelt  and  when  he 
declined  it,  appointed  Colonel  George  E.  Waring,  whose 
administration  of  that  office  is  famous  in  the  annals  of 
New  York.  William  Brookfield,  an  independent  Repub 
lican  business  man,  became  Commissioner  of  Public 
Works.  On  the  municipal  civil  service  board  the  new 
mayor  placed  Everett  P.  Wheeler  and  Godkin  of  the 
Evening  Post,  who  were  described  by  a  contemporary 
writer  as  "experienced  and  obdurate  reformers." 

The  Legislature  of  1895  had  a  considerable  Republican 
majority  and  had  been  elected  largely  by  the  votes  of  resi 
dents  of  New  York  City  who  were  anxious  for  action  in 
Albany  which  would  help  to  cure  the  situation  in  the 
metropolis.  But  when  the  Legislature  adjourned  on  May 
16th,  the  reformers  were  sorely  disappointed.  The  new 
statute  for  the  government  of  the  police  force  did  not  meet 
public  expectations.  It  provided  for  four  Commissioners, 
two  of  whom  were  to  be  appointed  from  one  party  and  two 
from  the  other.  There  was  also  a  Chief  of  Police,  whom 
the  Commissioners  were  to  appoint,  but  whom  they  could 
not  remove  without  a  regular  trial  subject  to  review  by 
the  courts  of  law.  The  Chief  of  Police  and  any  one  Com 
missioner  had  power,  in  most  cases,  to  prevent  action  by 
the  other  three  Commissioners.  The  granting  of  execu- 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER:  101 

live  power  to  so  numerous  a  body  and  the  provision 
which  made  a  dead-lock  so  easy  became  fruitful  sources 
of  trouble. 

Mayor  Strong  selected  Roosevelt  as  president  of  the 
Board  and  as  the  other  three  members,  Colonel  Frederick 
D.  Grant,  son  of  General  Grant,  Avery  D.  Andrews,  a 
young  lawyer  of  West  Point  training,  and  Andrew  D. 
Parker.  The  other  Commissioners  were,  at  first  in  entire 
harmony  with  their  president,  and  the  board  started  on 
its  career  with  every  chance  for  success. 

Two  problems  confronted  the  Commissioners  at  the 
outset.  One  of  these  was  to  take  the  police  force  entirely 
out  of  politics,  and  the  other  was  to  ensure  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  law.  Of  course  all  was  not  plain  sailing  by 
any  means.  Years  of  corruption  had  produced  a  growth 
which  a  single  operation  could  not  remove,  and,  in  addition, 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  did  not  maintain,  through 
out  the  term  of  Roosevelt's  service,  the  unanimity  which 
characterized  them  at  the  beginning.  The  system  of  checks 
and  balances  to  which  I  have  already  alluded  offered  con 
siderable  opportunity  to  the  obstructionist.  One  of  the 
members  of  the  Board  was  to  some  extent  affiliated  with 
the  type  of  politician  against  whom  the  people  had  risen 
to  elect  Mayor  Strong.  This  Commissioner  gradually 
grew  more  and  more  out  of  sympathy  with  his  associates 
and  became  the  source  of  considerable  difficulty.  Colonel 
Grant,  too,  although  perfectly  honest,  was  perhaps  inclined 
to  resent  a  little  the  leadership  of  a  man  who  was  consid 
erably  his  junior.  During  the  month  of  August,  1895,  the 
hostile  press  was  able  to  announce  with  considerable  satis 
faction  that  a  real  split  in  the  board  had  taken  place  over 
the  discharge  of  a  police  captain. 

Differences  of  temperament  were  exaggerated  by  the 


102  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

newspapers  until  they  became  moral  differences,  and 
Roosevelt's  enemies  lost  no  chance*  of  imperiling  the  suc 
cess  of  his  work  by  endeavoring  to  alienate  his  associates. 

Heretofore  it  had  been  impossible  to  secure  a  position 
on  the  police  force  unless  money  and  political  influence 
were  brought  to  bear.  As  a  first  step  toward  eliminating 
this  system,  the  Commissioners  announced  that  appoint 
ments  to  the  force  would  be  given  only  to  those  who  should 
satisfactorily  pass  a  civil  service /examination.  Any  man 
within  the  proper  age  limits  and  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  who  appeared  was  given  the  examination.  He  was 
obliged  to  furnish  five  vouchers  for  his  good  character  and 
was  subjected  by  the  Commission  to  a  searching  test  as  to 
his  physical  and  moral  qualifications.  This  investigation 
eliminated  four-fifths  of  the  applicants.  From  those  who 
remained,  members  of  the  police  force  were  selected  with 
out  any  regard  whatever  for  political  connections,  and 
usually  with  no  knowledge  of  what  their  political  connec 
tions  in  fact  were. 

When  it  came  to  promotions,  Roosevelt  differed  from 
most  of  the  civil  service  reformers.  He  held  that  promo 
tions  should  be  based  principally  upon  a  man's  conduct 
as  observed  by  his  superiors.  Consequently  a  list  was 
kept  of  those  policemen  who  had  particularly  distin 
guished  themselves  by  heroism  and  by  physical  prowess 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  Those  whose  names  were  on 
this  list  were  subjected  to  competitive  examinations,  upon 
the  results  of  which  their  promotions  in  part  depended.  In 
selecting  men  for  the  positions  of  greatest  responsibility 
special  attention  was  given  to  the  candidate's  ability  to 
handle  men  and  to  his  success  in  repressing  vice  and 
disorder  in  the  district  within  his  control. 

Bravery  in  the  discharge  of  duty  was  a  sure  road  to  the 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  103 

favor  of  the  president  of  the  Board.  Roosevelt  has 
recorded  more  than  one  instance  to  illustrate  this.  One  of 
the  first  promotions  made  by  the  new  Board  after  they  had 
begun  their  work  was  by  way  of  reward  for  such  conduct. 
A  roundsman  who  was  old  enough  to  be  a  veteran  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  who  had  been  on  the  force  for  twenty-two 
years,  saved  a  woman  from  drowning  in  the  spring  of  1895. 
Roosevelt  read  of  the  feat  in  the  report  submitted  to  him 
and  sent  for  the  rescuer.  The  roundsman  appeared  in  a 
state  of  considerable  nervousness  and  agitation.  He  had, 
during  his  service  on  the  force,  saved  some  twenty-five 
persons  from  death  by  drowning,  and  on  more  than  one 
occasion  had  saved  persons  from  burning  buildings.  Twice 
he  had  received,  upon  the  authorization  of  Congress, 
medals  for  distinguished  gallantry.  He  was  efficient  and 
trustworthy  and  there  was  no  blemish  on  his  record.  But 
he  had  no  political  backing  and  consequently  had  all  these 
years  failed  of  promotion.  Now  he  thought  that  perhaps 
his  chance  had  come.  As  a  result  of  his  interview  with 
Roosevelt  he  became  a  sergeant,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
he  justified  the  Commission's  action  by  effecting  his 
twenty-sixth  rescue  from  drowning. 

In  another  case  which  occurred  at  about  the  same 
time,  a  patrolman  pursued  a  gang  of  toughs  who  had  just 
robbed  and  beaten  a  man  in  the  street.  The  toughs  scat 
tered  and  the  policeman  pursued  the  ringleader.  Suddenly 
the  criminal,  finding  that  he  was  losing  ground,  turned 
and  fired.  The  ball  passed  through  the  policeman's 
helmet  and  just  grazed  his  scalp,  but  he  had  in  the 
same  instant  fired  his  own  revolver  with  truer  aim.  As 
the  officer  reeled  back  from  the  shock  of  the  bullet  which 
had  so  nearly  caused  him  his  life,  his  adversary  fell  dead,  shot 
through  the  heart.  This  man  was  promoted  to  roundsman. 


104  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  connection  with  this  incident  it  is  interesting  to 
note  what  Roosevelt  says  in  regard  \o  the  use  of  weapons 
by  the  police :  "  I  may  explain  that  I  have  not  the  slightest 
sympathy  with  any  policy  which  tends  to  put  the  police 
man  at  the  mercy  of  a  tough  or  which  deprives  him  of 
efficient  weapons.  While  Police  Commissioner,  we  pun 
ished  any  brutality  by  the  police  with  such  immediate 
severity  that  all  cases  of  brutality  practically  came  to  an 
end.  No  decent  citizen  had  anything  to  fear  from  the 
police  during  the  two  years  of  my  service.  But  we  con 
sistently  encouraged  the  police  to  prove  that  the  violent 
criminal  who  endeavored  to  molest  them  or  to  resist 
arrest  or  to  interfere  with  them  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duty,  was  himself  in  grave  jeopardy;  and  we  had  every 
'gang'  broken  up  and  the  members  punished  with 
whatever  severity  was  necessary.  Of  course  where  pos 
sible  the  officer  merely  crippled  the  criminal  who  was 
violent." 

Roosevelt  himself  took  a  keen  personal  interest  in  the 
individual  success  of  his  subordinates  and  in  his  personal 
relations  with  them.  Shortly  after  he  became  Commis 
sioner,  a  Jewish  boy  named  Otto  Raphael  was  introduced 
to  him  at  a  Bowery  meeting.  Raphael  was  a  powerful, 
intelligent  young  fellow  who  had  recently  saved  some 
women  and  children  from  a  burning  building  by  a  display 
of  pluck  and  strength  which  won  the  admiration  of  the 
Commissioner.  At  Roosevelt's  suggestion  Raphael  took 
the  civil  service  examination  and  secured  an  appointment 
to  the  force.  This  enabled  him  to  educate  his  little  broth 
ers  and  sisters  and  to  bring  over  from  Russia  two  or  three 
members  of  the  family  who  had  been  left  behind  because 
of  lack  of  funds.  In  speaking  of  this  incident,  Roosevelt 
characteristically  remembers  that  he  and  Raphael  were 


Underwood  £   Underwood,  N.   Y ., 


American  Press  Ass'n. 


AS  A  PUBLIC  SPEAKER 

Nine  characteristic  views  of  President  Roosevelt  speaking  in  public.  His 
style  was  free  from  tricks  of  oratory  but  remarkable  for  the  clear  and  forceful 
presentation  of  his  subject. 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  105 

the  only  men  in  the  police  department  who  picked  Fitz- 
simmons  as  a  winner  against  Corbett. 

This  elimination  of  politics  from  the  police  force  nat 
urally  incurred  the  enmity  of  those  politicians  who  had 
been  accustomed  for  years  to  control  the  actions  of  the 
department.  They  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  repeal  of 
the  civil  service  law  and  joined  with  others  of  Roosevelt's 
enemies  in  the  vicious  attacks  made  upon  him  during  his 
service  as  a  Commissioner. 

Bicycle  policemen  were  added  to  the  force  soon  after 
the  new  Commissioners  took  hold.  The  automobile  speed 
fiend  had  not  yet  come  into  being,  but  his  prototype,  the 
bicycle  scorcher,  was  bad  enough.  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
mounted  police  to  stop  runaways  and  arrest  scorchers. 
In  controlling  runaway  horses  some  of  them  acquired  mar 
velous  skill.  They  learned  to  ride  at  full  speed  beside 
the  horse's  bridle  and  by  a  steady  pressure  upon  the  bit 
gradually  to  bring  the  frightened  animal  to  a  standstill, 
or  to  jump  from  a  bicycle  into  a  runaway  vehicle  and 
arrest  the  occupant  whose  reckless  driving  had  been  the 
cause  of  the  trouble.  Under  Roosevelt's  leadership,  also, 
a  pistol  school  was  instituted  which  was  put  in  charge  of 
a  sergeant  named  Petty,  who  was  one  of  the  champion 
revolver  shots  of  the  country. 

Roosevelt  himself  wras  always  in  the  thick  of  action. 
He  threw  his  whole  soul  into  the  performance  of  his  job 
and  carried  its  problems  with  him  night  and  day.  Not 
long  after  he  came  into  office  a  serious  strike  occurred  in 
New  York  City  accompanied  by  violence  and  bloodshed. 
Finding  that  the  situation  did  not  improve  with  the  pas 
sage  of  time,  he  arranged  to  meet  certain  of  the  strikers  in 
Clarendon  Hall  to  see  whether  the  difficulty  could  not  be 
settled  at  a  conference  between  them.  The  strikers  mis- 


106  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

took  their  man,  and  after  explaining  their  grievances 
resorted  to  threats.  Roosevelt's  attitude  of  sympathetic 
interest  gave  way  immediately  to  an  expression  of  stern 
determination.  "Wait  a  moment,  gentlemen."  he  said, 
"I  begin  to  think  that  some  of  you  have  mistaken  the 
purpose  of  my  invitation.  Remember  this,  please,  before 
we  go  one  step  further.  The  man  among  you  who  advises 
or  encourages  violence  is  the  enemy  of  all.  We  shall  have 
order  in  this  place  and  peace  in  this  city  before  we  have 
anything  else;  and  the  police  will  preserve  it.  Now,  if  the 
air  is  clear  we  can  go  on."  His  boldness  and  candor 
appealed  strongly  to  the  strikers  and  instead  of  anger  or 
defiance,  moved  them  to  cheers.  His  conviction  that 
the  enforcement  of  law  and  order  was  paramount  to 
all  other  considerations  was  shared,  before  he  left  office, 
by  many  of  the  labor  leaders  with  whom  he  had  come  in 
contact,  so  that  before  his  departure  several  of  them  called 
upon  him  to  express  their  regret  at  this  going.  One  of 
these,  the  secretary  of  the  Journeyman  Bakers'  and  Con 
fectioners'  International  Union,  wrote  him:  "I  am 
particularly  grateful  for  your  liberal  attitude  toward 
organized  labor,  your  cordial  championship  of  those 
speaking  in  behalf  of  the  toilers,  and  your  evident  desire 
to  do  the  right  thing  as  you  saw  it  at  whatever  cost." 

Jacob  A.  Riis  was  at  this  time  a  constant  companion 
of  Roosevelt.  Riis,  as  a  newspaper  reporter,  had  become 
intensely  interested  in  the  life  of  New  York  City's  East 
Side  and  had  recorded  some  of  his  observations  in  his  book 
"How  the  Other  Half  Live."  Going  back  to  his  office  one 
day  after  an  absence  of  some  hours,  Riis  found  on  his  desk 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  card  with  the  simple  inscription 
"I  have  read  your  book  and  I  have  come  to  help."  It  is 
hard  to  overestimate  the  value  of  these  two  men  to  one 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  107 

another  during  the  next  two  years.  Riis  found  a  ready 
champion  of  the  cause  of  his  East  Side  friends  and  Roose 
velt  found  a  reliable  man  with  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
many  matters  which  bore  directly  upon  his  work  as  a  Police 
Commissioner.  Many  a  night  these  two  tramped  the 
streets  together,  talking  to  policemen  on  their  beats,  find 
ing  others  asleep  or  gossiping,  observing  conditions  in  the 
tenement  districts  and  planning  for  the  betterment  of  the 
city.  Riis  had  concluded  that  the  police  lodging  houses 
were  nothing  but  free  hotels  for  beggars,  and  at  his 
instance  they  were  discontinued.  He  had  gathered  con 
siderable  data  in  regard  to  health  conditions  in  the 
tenements  and  these  formed  the  basis  of  Roosevelt's  action 
as  an  ex-officio  member  of  the  Health  Board. 

During  August  of  1896,  New  York  was  visited  with  a 
wave  of  terrible  heat  which  lasted  for  days.  The  death 
rate  for  some  of  these  days  increased  from  the  normal 
average  of  twenty  per  thousand  annually  to  fifty  per 
thousand  annually.  To  combat  the  pitiful  effects  of  the 
heat,  the  city  appropriated  thousands  of  dollars  to  purchase 
ice  which  was  distributed  free  under  the  direction  of  the 
Police  Commissioners.  The  Health  Department  adopted 
stringent  rules  in  regard  to  the  milk  supply.  As  a  result  of 
this  and  other  precautions  the  death  rate  among  babies  was 
comparatively  small.  During  the  meeting  at  which  Bryan 
was  officially  notified  that  he  was  the  Democratic  nominee 
for  the  Presidency,  when  25,000  people  were  gathered  in 
Madison  Square  Garden  the  Commissioners  placed  police 
surgeons  in  the  basement  of  the  building  ready  with  ice 
packs  and  other  appliances  to  take  care  of  cases  of  heat 
prostration. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  general  conduct  of 
the  police  force  there  is  one  instance  which  will  bear  telling. 


108  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT* 

A  German  preacher  named  Ahlwardt  came  over  to  New 
York  to  preach  a  crusade  against  the'Jews.  Many  of  the 
New  York  Jews  took  the  matter  very  much  to  heart  and 
asked  Roosevelt  to  prevent  the  crusader  from  speaking. 
This  the  Commissioner  refused  to  do.  In  the  first  place 
he  doubted  his  right  to  stop  the  speech  and  in  the  second 
place  he  thought  that  to  make  the  man  ridiculous  would 
be  better  than  to  make  him  a  martyr.  Accordingly,  he 
detailed  for  Ahlwardt's  protection  a  Jewish  sergeant  and 
a  score  or  two  of  Jewish  policemen,  so  that  the  worthy 
preacher  delivered  his  invective  against  the  Jews  under 
the  active  protection  of  the  objects  of  his  attack. 

During  the  years  of  Roosevelt's  service  the  Board  of 
Police  Commissioners  accomplished  much  for  the  police 
force  and  for  the  city.  But  long  after  all  other  achieve 
ments  are  forgotten,  one  will  be  remembered — the  enforce 
ment  of  the  Sunday  Closing  Law.  The  statutes  of  the 
State  of  New  York  forbade  the  sale  of  liquor  on  Sunday. 
No  one  disputed  this;  in  fact  no  one  could  dispute  it. 
Under  Tammany  this  law  had  been  enforced,  but  only 
against  those  who  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  purchase 
immunity  from  its  provisions.  From  Commissioner  to 
patrolman  the  police  force  had  exacted  blackmail  from 
the  saloon-keepers.  The  liquor  dealer  who  could  not 
produce  the  necessary  cash  and  votes  found  that  his  place 
of  business  was  closed  on  Sunday,  while  his  rival  across 
the  street  was  not  only  earning  the  biggest  money  of  the 
week,  but  was  swiftly  stealing  away  his  steady  customers. 
"The  police,"  says  Roosevelt,  "used  the  partial  and  spas 
modic  enforcement  of  the  law  as  a  means  of  collecting 
blackmail.  The  result  was  that  the  officers  of  the  law, 
the  politicians,  and  the  saloon-keepers  became  inextrica 
bly  tangled  in  a  network  of  crime  and  connivance  at  crime. 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  109 

The  most  powerful  saloon-keepers  controlled  the  poli 
ticians  and  the  police,  while  the  latter  in  turn  terrorized 
and  blackmailed  all  the  other  saloon-keepers.  It  was 
not  a  case  of  non-enforcement  of  the  law.  The  law  was 
very  actively  enforced,  but  it  was  enforced  with  corrupt 
discrimination. ' ' 

Roosevelt  and  his  associates  had  no  particular  fond 
ness  for  the  Sunday  Closing  Law,  but  they  were  confronted 
with  a  situation  which  to  their  minds  presented  but  two 
alternatives.  One  of  these  was  to  abandon  any  attempt 
whatever  to  enforce  the  law;  the  other  was  to  enforce  it 
impartially  against  every  one.  To  Roosevelt  it  was  un 
thinkable  that  the  Police  Commissioners  should  permit 
the  continuance  of  the  outrageous  system  which  had 
hitherto  prevailed;  and  it  was  equally  unthinkable  that 
they  should  deliberately  fail  to  enforce  the  law  as  it  stood 
upon  the  statute  books.  There  was  then  but  one  course 
left  for  them  to  pursue,  and  that  was  to  close  all  saloons 
on  Sunday  without  fear  or  favor. 

Under  a  recent  act  of  Assembly  the  mayor  had  the 
power  to  remove  the  Tammany  police  magistrates  and  to 
appoint  others  in  their  places.  Until  this  power  was  exer 
cised  it  was  idle  for  the  Police  Commissioners  to  attempt  to 
carry  out  their  project.  As  soon  as  Mayor  Strong  exercised 
the  authority  given  him,  Roosevelt  prepared  to  act.  The 
new  magistrates  were  to  take  office  on  Monday,  July  1, 
1895,  and  it  was  consequently  announced  that  on  Sunday, 
June  30th,  the  police  would  see  that  all  liquor  saloons  were 
closed.  The  threat  was  carried  into  effect  and  produced  a 
roar  of  surprise  and  rage  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Manhattan  Island.  The  newspapers  on  Mon 
day  morning  were  full  of  the  subject,  some  condemning 
the  action  of  the  Commissioners,  others  remaining  neutral, 


110  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  only  one  or  two  favoring  it.  Roosevelt  himself  went 
about  the  city  to  see  that  the  order  was  enforced.  At  the 
corner  of  Thirtieth  Street  and  Seventh  Avenue,  he  was  seen 
early  on  Sunday  personally  superintending  the  closing  of  a 
saloon  which  had  violated  the  order.  The  police  were 
everywhere,  but  the  arrests  were  not  as  numerous  as  one 
might  suppose.  On  January  13th,  four  months  before  the 
new  Board  had  taken  office,  the  arrests  under  the  old  black 
mailing  system  had  risen  to  two  hundred  and  fifty -four. 
On  the  first  Sunday  of  the  new  plan  there  were  only  one 
hundred  and  twenty-four  arrests. 

Numerous  attempts  were  made  to  evade  the  provi 
sions  of  the  law  by  furnishing  a  meal  to  thirsty  patrons  to 
accompany  the  liquor  which  they  ordered.  The  meal  in 
most  cases  consisted  of  nothing  more  substantial  than 
cheese  and  crackers,  and  the  evasions  by  this  means  were 
not  numerous.  Many  went  out  in  the  harbor  thinking  to 
escape  the  attentions  of  the  police,  but  this  scheme  had  been 
foreseen  by  the  Commissioners.  The  County  Cork  Men's 
Association,  for  instance,  hired  an  excursion  boat  and  when 
she  pulled  out  from  the  dock  began  freely  to  patronize  the 
bar,  but  policemen  in  plain  clothes  had  joined  the  festive 
party  and  immediately  arrested  the  offenders. 

In  some  instances  the  arrest  of  saloon-keepers  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  violate  the  law  under  the  old  regime 
was  accompanied  with  considerable  excitement.  For 
instance,  John  Kelly  sold  liquor  after  midnight  at  his 
saloon  on  Avenue  A.  An  officer  named  Kidney  knew 
what  was  going  on  and  made  four  attempts  to  enter  the 
place  but  without  success.  He  was  assisted  by  another 
officer  named  Dunne,  both  of  them  being  in  citizens' 
clothes.  Finally  five  men  arrived  in  a  group  and  were 
admitted  by  the  watcher  at  the  door.  Dunne  tried  to  go 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  111 

in  with  them  and  was  stopped  by  the  watcher.  During 
the  wrangle  a  group  of  several  hundred  people  collected. 
About  this  time  Dunne  noticed  that  Kidney  had  attached 
himself  to  another  group  of  seven  men  "whom  the  door 
keeper  seemed  to  know.  Dunne  accordingly  retired  and 
Kidney  was  admitted  to  the  saloon.  When  he  got  inside 
Kidney  found  twenty-two  patrons  there  drinking.  He 
told  Kelly  who  was  behind  the  bar  that  he  was  under 
arrest.  The  watcher,  who  had  been  looking  at  Kidney, 
left  his  post,  ran  inside  and  grabbed  him  by  the  throat. 
Kidney  was  getting  the  better  of  it  wrhen  two  men  inter 
fered  to  help  the  watcher.  The  policeman  shook  himself 
free  and  backed  up  against  the  refrigerator,  when  Kelly 
and  some  of  his  friends  made  a  rush  at  him.  Kidney  drew 
his  revolver  and  the  crowd  fell  back  a  moment.  Edging 
toward  the  door,  he  pulled  back  the  bolt  and  admitted 
Dunne  who  was  all  the  time  wailing  outside.  Dunne 
jumped  on  the  nearest  man  and  flung  him  into  the  hall. 
The  next  man  was  the  watcher  and  Dunne  threw  him  out 
so  quickly  that  he  did  not  hear  Kidney  shouting  to  him  to 
hold  him  a  prisoner.  Then  the  two  policemen  having 
fairly  cowed  the  men  inside  took  Kelly  prisoner  and 
marched  him  to  the  station  house. 

It  seems  extraordinary  that  the  closing  of  the  saloons 
on  Sunday  should  have  aroused  such  a  storm  of  protest. 
Men  who  were  accustomed  to  gratify  their  stomachs  with 
liquor  resented  the  slightest  interference  writh  the  satis 
faction  of  their  appetites;  and  the  liquor  dealers,  whose 
profits  from  Sunday  sales  were  enormous,  were  of  course 
not  slow  to  raise  the  hue  and  cry  against  the  Board  of 
Police  Commissioners  and  especially  against  its  president. 
The  question  of  Sunday  closing  immediately  became  a 
vital  issue.  On  Tuesday  the  Young  Men's  Democratic 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Union  met  and  prepared  to  carry  wthe  agitation  for  a 
liberal  Sunday  to  the  Legislature  in  Albany.  A  meeting 
of  German-Americans,  among  whom  were  Carl  Schurz  and 
Jacob  H.  Schiff,  signed  a  statement  advocating  a  liberal 
Sunday  but  agreeing  that  the  Police  Commissioners  were 
bound  by  their  oath  of  office  to  enforce  the  law  as  it  stood. 
Roosevelt's  enemies  were  astute  and  powerful  and  lost  no 
opportunity  to  attack  him.  The  liquor  dealers  and  the 
"respectable  citizens,"  together  with  the  larger  part  of  the 
daily  press,  began  a  course  of  persecution  which  only  had 
the  effect  of  confirming  him  in  the  course  which  he  had 
chosen  to  follow.  They  were  also  furious  w^ith  Mayor 
Strong  who  was  alleged  to  have  said  to  certain  represen 
tatives  of  the  liquor  dealers  a  short  time  before;  "Boys,  if 
you  can  arrange  among  yourselves,  you  might  keep  open  a 
little  on  Sunday  afternoon  and  see  how  it  works,"  and 
who  was  now  charged  with  violation  of  his  promise.  But 
the  chief  burden  of  the  attack  of  course  fell  upon  the 
president  of  the  Police  Board. 

On  July  4th  a  great  Tammany  celebration  was  ad 
dressed  by  ex-Governor  Campbell  of  Ohio.  In  the  course 
of  his  speech  Campbell  said:  "The  Democracy  united  can 
sweep  this  city  next  fall  by  a  plurality  of  70,000  votes,  and 
then  the  time  will  come  when  persons  can  get  their  Sun 
day  beer,  when  a  poor  man  who  cannot  afford  to  stable 
his  horse  and  cart  can  let  them  stand  in  the  street  before 
his  door  at  night."  This  last  was  an  allusion  to  the  fact 
that  Roosevelt  had  put  an  end  to  the  free  stabling  of  horses 
and  carts  in  the  narrow  streets  of  the  city,  a  privilege 
which  had  been  well  paid  for  under  the  old  regime. 

Roosevelt's  answer  to  this  kind  of  criticism  was  the 
plain  statement:  "I  would  rather  see  this  administration 
turned  out  because  it  enforced  the  laws  than  see  it 


POLICE  COMMISSIONER  113 

succeed  by  violating  them."  In  his  mind  there  was 
absolutely  no  room  for  argument.  The  law  was  there  and 
it  had  to  be  enforced. 

Of  the  second  Sunday  of  the  crusade,  July  the  8th, 
one  of  the  city  newspapers  reported  next  day,  "It  was  dry 
but  not  very  dry."  Only  one  hundred  and  five  arrests 
were  made  on  this  day  for  failure  to  comply  with  the  law. 
Thirty  citizens  went  to  Brooklyn  where  the  police  did  not 
take  so  strict  a  view  of  their  obligations.  The  steamer 
Bay  Queen  with  four  barges  in  tow  started  out  with  a 
crowd  of  excursionists.  Eight  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
had  been  paid  for  the  bar  privilege.  The  newspapers 
reported  that  when  she  got  well  underway  "the  men  of 
Limerick  came  to  the  barkeeper  and  cried  aloud  for 
drink  and  he  could  not  minister  to  them."  The  difficulty 
of  course,  was  that  members  of  the  police  force  had 
joined  the  excursionists  to  see  that  no  violation  of  the  law 
occurred. 

The  war  against  Roosevelt  was  waged  unceasingly. 
The  newspapers  made  fun  of  his  spectacles,  his  teeth,  his 
volubility  and  above  all  of  his  recklessness*  in  speaking 
directly  of  himself  in  the  first  person  singular.  The  com 
mon  cry  was  that  he  was  the  rich  man's  friend  and  the  poor 
man's  enemy.  The  president  of  the  Young  Men's  Demo 
cratic  Union  wrote  him  an  open  letter  calling  him  "A 
bitter  Republican  writh  aristocratic  tendencies,"  and  asked 
him  to  raid  the  Union  League  Club  on  the  following  Sun 
day.  "Do  not  be  deterred,"  he  wrote,  "from  the  strict 
discharge  of  your  duty  by  reason  of  the  enormous  sums 
of  money  annually  contributed  to  the  Republican  com 
mittees  'for  protection.'  :  Roosevelt  answered  that  he 
would  stop  unlawful  sales  of  liquor  as  quickly  in  the 
Union  League  Club  as  in  any  other  place,  and  said,  "I 

8 


114  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

have  seen  plenty  of  base  demagoguery  in  my  career,  but 
a  baser  demagoguery  than  that  of  those  who  protest 
against  the  enforcement  of  the  law  because  it  is  against 
the  poor  man  I  have  never  seen."  His  enemies  knew  as 
well  as  he  did  that  he  was  hurting  not  the  poor  man,  but 
the  rich  liquor  dealers  who  profited  by  the  Sunday  sales. 

The  law  was  described  as  an  antiquated  blue  law 
which  no  man  of  intelligence  or  liberality  would  attempt 
to  enforce.  Senator  Hill,  the  Democratic  leader  of  the 
state,  wrote:  "The  chief  difficulty  in  New  York  City 
today  arises  from  the  unreasonable  construction  which 
the  new  Police  Commissioners  and  magistrates  are  giving 
the  excise  law,  in  their  arbitrary  and  unintelligent  enforce 
ment  of  these  provisions."  One  cartoon  represented 
New  York  as  a  fair  lady  bound  in  the  fetters  of  the  blue 
laws  while  an  unpleasant  looking  individual  labeled 
"Puritan  Reformer"  looked  unctuously  on;  another 
depicted  Roosevelt  sitting  on  Father  Knickerbocker's 
lap  holding  a  hobby-horse  named  Sunday  Closing  Law, 
while  Father  Knickerbocker  says  despairingly,  "What  a 
pity  he  doesn't  cut  his  wisdom  teeth." 

To  this  criticism  Roosevelt  made  vigorous  answer. 
It  was  idle  to  call  a  law  antiquated  which  was  only  three 
years  old.  The  Sunday  closing  provision  had  been 
inserted  in  the  statute  in  1857,  but  in  1892  the  liquor  law 
had  been  revised  by  a  Democratic  Legislature  and  the 
proposition  to  eliminate  the  Sunday  provision  had  been 
deliberately  rejected.  To  Hill's  letter  he  replied  that  he 
was  delighted  as  a  party  man  to  have  the  enforcement 
of  the  law  made  a  party  question,  but  that  as  an  American 
citizen  he  was  ashamed  that  it  was  possible  to  raise  such 
an  issue. 

Another  charge  was  that  the  police  took  so  much  time 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  115 

in  the  enforcement  of  the  Sunday  Closing  Law  that 
they  had  no  leisure  left  for  the  prevention  of  other  forms 
of  crime.  A  cartoon  showed  Roosevelt  in  a  policeman's 
uniform  leaning  idly  against  a  closed  bar,  while  two 
burglars  looted  a  safe  in  the  rear  of  the  premises.  Below 
the  picture  was  the  statement  by  Roosevelt,  "It  is  a 
waste  of  time  for  the  criminal  classes  and  their  allies  to 
try  to  distract  us  from  enforcing  the  vital  laws  by  raising 
a  clamor  that  we  are  not  enforcing  those  of  less  impor 
tance."  The  paper  in  which  this  cartoon  appeared  also 
reported  the  complaint  of  a  citizen  whose  house^was 
robbed  while,  as  he  said,  "The  cops  told  me  they  were  ^ 
too  busy  to  help  me  out."  In  another  daily  there 
appeared  a  list  of  crimes  which  were  said  to  have  been 
successfully  perpetrated  without  interference  or  punish 
ment  by  the  police.  Roosevelt's  answer  was  to  produce 
the  facts  and  to  prove  by  the  police  records  that  the 
average  number  of  felonies  was  one  less  per  day  than 
during  the  preceding  year  and  that  the  average  of  arrests 
was  one  more  per  day.  He  took  up  the  cases  of  crime  of 
which  the  newspaper  had  complained  and  showed  by 
means  of  the  deadly  parallel  what  the  exact  truth  was. 
In  one  column  he  put  the  statements  made  by  his  enemies 
and  in  the  other  the  reports  of  the  cases  as  they  appeared 
in  the  records  of  his  department.  In  every  case  the 
accusations  were  proven  to  be  unfounded. 

His  enemies  became  considerably  disturbed  because 
the  law  was  not  enforced  as  strictly  against  the  sellers  of 
soda  water  as  against  the  retailers  of  liquor.  "It  wasn't 
very  dry,"  reported  one  of  the  newspapers  after  the 
third  Sunday  of  the  campaign.  Soda  was  purchased 
quite  readily  and  there  was  apparently  little  effort  to 
prevent  its  sale,  although  the  law  covers  soft  drinks  as 


116  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

well  as  alcoholic  ones.  Roosevelt  retorted  that  it  was 
impossible  with  the  force  at  his  "command  to  compel 
obedience  to  every  provision  of  the  law;  that  he  would  do 
so  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power,  and  that  the  enforcement  of  the 
more  important  provisions  of  the  law  necessarily  would 
have  the  priority.  He  was  determined  to  stamp  out 
the  Sunday  sales  of  liquor  because  they  had  been  in  the 
past  a  source  of  blackmail  and  corruption.  "If,"  he 
said,  "a  policeman  finds  a  penny  gambling  game  on  one 
side  of  the  street  and  a  burglar  on  the  other,  I  should  not 
expect  him  to  risk  the  escape  of  the  burglar  through  his 
anxiety  to  arrest  the  gamblers." 

As  the  crusade  went  on,  the  press  became  more  and 
more  openly  hostile.  It  was  computed  that  the  saloon 
keepers  were  losing  every  Sunday  the  profit  on  the  sale 
of  30,000  kegs  of  beer,  and  this  fact  no  doubt  influenced 
the  policy  of  the  newspapers  in  which  they  advertised. 
New  York  was  described  in  the  Monday  morning  editions 
as  "Roosevelt's  Deserted  Village,"  and  was  frequently 
likened  to  the  Desert  of  Sahara. 

At  intervals,  violent  conflicts  occurred  over  the 
enforcement  of  the  law,  such  as  the  fight  of  the  first  night 
between  Kidney  and  Kelly.  One  saloon-keeper  who 
stood  high  in  political  circles  was  known  as  "King"  or 
"Bootsy"  Callahan.  When  the  campaign  began,  a 
patrolman  named  Edward  J.  Bourke  was  walking  for 
the  first  time  the  beat  on  which  Callahan's  saloon  was 
situated.  After  midnight  the  saloon  was  still  running 
at  full  blast  and  Bourke  stepping  inside  told  Callahan 
to  close  up.  Then  he  walked  around  the  block  and  put 
his  head  in  again  to  see  if  his  order  had  been  obeyed. 
Callahan  resented  this  kind  of  persistence  and  went  so 
far  as  to  knock  Bourke  down.  Bourke  instantly  got  to 


POLICE   COMMISSIONER  117 

his  feet  and  knocked  Callahan  down.  They  grappled, 
and  as  they  rolled  on  the  floor,  Callahan's  friends  did 
their  best  to  stamp  on  Bourke.  Bourke,  however,  stuck 
to  his  job  and  finally  shut  the  saloon  and  ran  his  man 
into  the  police  station.  The  next  morning  Callahan's 
friends  had  the  cards  stacked  against  the  policeman  and 
were  prepared  not  only  to  procure  Callahan's  release,  but 
to  charge  Bourke  with  improper  conduct  in  attempting 
to  make  an  arrest.  Fortunately,  Roosevelt  heard  of  the 
matter  and  started  for  the  court-room.  His  appearance 
put  a  very  different  face  on  the  situation  and  the  result 
was  a  triumphant  victory  for  Bourke  and  for  the  new 
system. 

By  this  time  the  matter  of  Sunday  closing  had  become 
so  much  of  a  political  issue  that  Republicans  and  Demo 
crats  alike  were  trying  to  make  capital  out  of  it  at  one 
another's  expense.  The  idea  that  each  community 
should  decide  the  question  for  itself  was  advocated  by 
many  and  attained  considerable  popularity.  Roosevelt, 
however,  was  not  interested  in  this  phase  of  the  matter. 
He  was  only  concerned  in  enforcing  the  law  as  it  stood 
and  in  discharging  the  sworn  duties  of  his  office.  His 
attitude  brought  him  many  enemies,  but  friends  were  not 
wanting. 

In  a  great  meeting  in  Carnegie  Hall  in  August 
he  spoke  before  the  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Union  of 
America  and  received  a  tremendous  ovation.  Resolu 
tions  were  adopted  approving  the  course  which  he  had 
pursued. 

At  last  the  liquor  men  concluded  that  neither 
threats  nor  ridicule  would  swerve  the  Commissioners 
from  their  task.  On  September  5th  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Liquor  Dealers'  Association,  a  resolution  was  adopted 


118  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

calling  for  the  voluntary  closing  of  the  saloons  on  Sunday. 
This  did  not  mean  that  all  the  trouble  ceased;  but  a  new 
step  had  been  taken  and  things  never  slipped  back  to 
anything  like  they  had  been  before. 

Roosevelt's  record  as  Police  Commissioner,  and  espe 
cially  his  uncompromising  and  determined  enforcement  of 
the  Sunday  Closing  Law  stood  him  in  good  stead  when, 
less  than  two  years  later,  he  made  his  successful  campaign 
for  the  Governorship. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY 


R)OSEVELT  beiaine  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  in  April,yi897.  Following  the  Civil  War, 
the  Nation  had  put  away  armaments  and  taken 
up  happily  the  pursuits  of  peace.  Weary  of  the  financial 
burden  of  fleets  and  armies,  and  self-complacent  in  the 
security  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the  belief  that  war 
with  any  foreign  power  was  beyond  the  range  of  possi 
bility,  the  government  acquiesced  in  the  general  demand 
for  disarmament.  Consequently,  the  development  in  the 
science  of  naval  warfare  which  had  flourished  during  the 
days  of  the  Rebellion  ceased  altogether,  and  for  a  long 
time  there  was  no  thought  of  naval  reconstruction  in 
consonance  with  the  maritime  evolution  of  the  period. 
For  two  decades  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
we  had  not  a  single  armored  ship.  In  the  administra 
tion  of  President  Hayes  our  navy  ranked  lower  than  that 
of  any  nation  in  Europe.  Chili,  with  her  two  ironclads, 
was  stronger  on  the  sea  than  we  were.  During  the  admin 
istration  of  President  Garfield  twenty-five  out  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  vessels  in  our  navy  were  ordinary 
sea  tugs.  Not  a  single  ship  was  in  condition  for  warfare. 
All  were  wooden  ships;  they  included  the  side-wheel 
steamer  Powhatan,  and  the  very  ancient  frigate,  Consti 
tution.  The  mounts  of  these  wooden  tubs  were  smooth 
bores — "  left-overs' '  from  the  Civil  War. 

Then,  under  President  Arthur,  came  the  awakening. 
The  first  program  of  the  new  era  called  for  thirty -eight 

(119) 


120  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

unarmored  cruisers,  five  rams,  five  torpedo  gunboats 
and  ten  harbor  torpedo-boats,  mostly  of  steel.  Following 
it  came  the  celebrated  "White  Squadron."  Next  the 
government  encouraged  the  creation  of  industries  for  the 
manufacture  of  guns,  forgings  and  castings  that  formerly 
had  been  bought  abroad.  Finally,  in  1890,  the  first 
American  battleships  were  laid  down.  Thus  when  Roose 
velt  became  Assistant  Secretary,  the  condition  of  our  navy 
was  far  better  than  it  had  be$n  fifteen  years  before,  when 
he  wrote  his  "Naval  History  j>f  the  War  of  1812." 

On  the  other  hand,  our  nai  ry  was  not  prepared  for  war. 
Of  this  he  was  fully  aware,  aid  he  devoted  all  his  energy 


and  force  to  making  the  na 


secret  of  his  firm  conviction  mat  affairs  in  Cuba  were  in 


such  a  precarious  state  that  i 


ready,  for  he  made  no 


tervention  in  the  island  bv 


the  United  States  would  be  necessary^  [Furthermore,  he 
believed  that  it  was  the  moral  duty  of  the  United  States 
to  end  Spanish  misrule  in  Cuba  and  to  stop  at  once  and 
forever  the  despotic  tyranny  of  the  Spanish  Governor- 
General,  Weyler,  the  shooting  of  unarmed  men  and 
women,  and  the  herding  of  thousands  of  reconcentrados 
(country  people  forced  to  leave  their  homes)  into  camps 
and  garrisoned  towns. 

He  made  no  pretense  of  concealing  his  own  views, 
though  it  was  currently  believed  in  Washington  at  the 
time  that  his  desire  to  speed  up  a  war  program  was  not 
shared  by  his  chief  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  who 
had  been  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Peace  Society, 
was  perhaps  inclined  to  view  the  activities  of  his  assistant 
as  those  of  a  youthful  zealot.  But  Roosevelt,  eager  to 
have  the  department  placed  upon  a  basis  of  prepared 
ness,  sought  frequent  audience  with  President  McKinley. 
ashington  told  of  a  certain  carriage  ride  along  the  Poto- 


w. 


a 


#86 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY 

mac  when  "the  rattle  of  the  wheels  and  the  jangle  of  the 
harness  was  completely  drowned  out  by  the  flow  of  con 
versation  that  came  from  the  interior  of  the  brougham." 
The  ride  may  be  the  creation  of  a  reporter's  brain  but  the 
story,  like  a  good  caricature,  contains  an  essential  truth. 
The  President  was  striving  to  avert  war;  the  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  striving  to  prepare  the  navy 
for  the  war  that  he  deemed  imminent. 

In  a  Cabinet  meeting  to  which  he  was  summoned  one 
day  in  March,  1898,  he  is  reported  to  have  replied  to  some 
statement  of  a  Cabinet  officer:  "The  coming  war — don't 
speak  to  me  about  the  coming  war,  it's  here.  It's  been 
war  for  six  weeks  and  we  have  lost  one  of  our  battleships." 

He  believed  the  blowing  up  of  the  Maine  had  forced 
the  issue:  he  believed  the  people  were  ardently  for  war 
with  Spain,  and  that  they  were  right.  Some  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  President's  Cabinet  held  out  for  peace,  others 
had  formed  no  definite  conclusion,  and  the  President  him 
self  was  still  deliberating  on  what  course  to  pursue.  But 
not  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He  had  a  work 
ing  plan  for  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and,  furthermore,  he 
submitted  it. 

"When  the  President  learned  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  had 
formed  a  definite  opinion  about  what  the  situation  de 
manded,"  says  Francis  E.  Leupp  in  "The  Man  Roose 
velt,"  "he  sent  for  him  one  morning  and  listened  to  his 
plans.  When  the  question  was  discussed  in  the  Cabinet 
the  same  day,  the  President  remarked  with  a  smile,  'Gen 
tlemen,  not  one  of  you  has  put  half  as  much  enthu 
siasm  into  his  expression  as  Mr.  Roosevelt,  our  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He  has  laid  out  the  whole  pro 
gramme  of  the  war/ 

"  'Could  you  not  induce  him  to  work  out  a  written 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

report  as  a  model  for  us?'  queried  one  of  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet  in  the  same  tone  as  that  of  the  President. 

"'I  can  do  better  than  that,'  replied  President  McKin- 
ley,  'I  can  call  him  in  and  let  you  hear  for  yourselves.'" 

It  is  related  that  Roosevelt  accepted  the  invitation 
and  in  vigorous  style,  after  the  President  had  given  him  a 
few  leading  questions,  ran  through  his  programme,  while 
every  Cabinet  officer  listened  intently.  He  put  more 
enthusiasm  in  it,  with  facile  expression  and  gesture,  than 
the  President  had  been  able  to  give  in  his  first  report. 
When  he  left,  the  President  smiled.  A  few  of  his  Cabinet 
members  smiled  too,  and  there  were  still  others  who  could 
find  nothing  impressive  in  what  they  were  pleased  to 
regard  as  "radicalism"  and  "exaggeration"  and  "enthu 
siasm."  But  Washington  rang  with  the  story  that  night 
and  for  some  days  afterward. 

/'At  the  time  of  the  sinking  of  the  Maine  our  navy 
consisted  of  ninety  vessels.  Twenty -one  of  these  were 
unserviceable,  twenty-seven  were  out  of  commission  and 
forty-two  were  in  commission.  Of  those  in  commission, 
six  were  in  the  East  Indies,  eight  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
seven  on  the  Pacific  coast,  twelve  in  home  ports,  three  on 
the  European  station  and  six  in  South  Atlantic  waters. 
Had  she  struck  at  that  moment  Spain  might  have  accom 
plished  mischief./  But,  just  as  Great  Britain  marshaled 
her  fleet  in  the  North  Sea  in  the  summer  of  1914,  so  the 
Navy  Department,  in  the  winter  of  1898,  began  calling 
our  navy  home.  Roosevelt  had  a  prominent  and  all- 
mportant  part  in  that  mobilization. 

The  buying  of  new  ships  and  the  conversion  of  mer 
chant  marine  into  men-of-war  devolved  largely  upon  the 
Assistant  Secretary.  With  consummate  zeal  he  set  about 
the  task.  Congress  first  voted  $50,000,000  for  war  pur- 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       123 

poses,  of  which  more  than  half  went  to  the  navy.  Later 
the  navy  received  more  than  $57,000,000  in  all.  Roosevelt 
sent  Captain  W.  H.  Brownson  abroad  to  buy  ships.  But 
foreign  nations  were  averse  to  any  entanglements  with  a 
belligerent  growing  out  of  the  disposition  of  ships  of  war 
and  were  loath  to  sell.  However,  he  did  succeed  in  get 
ting  the  cruisers  Amazones  and  Abreu  from  Brazil,  the  gun 
boat  Diogenes  from  England  and  two  torpedo-boats.  In 
quick  succession  ninety-seven  merchantmen  were  pur 
chased  at  home  and  transformed  into  auxiliary  cruisers, 
gunboats  and  colliers.  Fifteen  revenue  cutters,  four 
lighthouse  tenders  and  two  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  vessels 
were  pressed  into  service.^ 

Not  the  least  of  Roosevelt's  troubles  was  the  profiteer. 
One  of  the  great  needs  of  the  hour  was  coaling  vessels. 
And  of  these,  "many  were  called  but  few  were  chosen." 
They  were  rejected  in  part  because  of  their  unsea worthy 
condition.  In  spite  of  the  exercise  of  his  best  care  and 
judgment  he  frequently  found  vessels  wished  upon  the 
navy  by  designing  agents  which  looked  all  right  in  port 
but  not  in  the  open  sea  laden  with  a  full  cargo.  He  pro 
tested  against  the  exorbitant  prices  asked,  and  the  inferior 
bottoms  offered.  But  the  government  had  to  have  the 
ships  and  he  found  himself  frequently  in  a  dilemma.  Mr. 
Leupp  records  a  striking  instance  of  the  way  he  vented  his 
wrath  upon  the  "profiteers." 

"I  burst  in  upon  him  one  day  at  the  department,  with 
out  warning,  and  found  him  in  the  middle  of  the  floor 
indulging  in  some  very  spirited  talk  to  a  visitor.  As  I  was 
hastily  withdrawing  he  called  me  back. 

"Stay  here,'  said  he,  'I  want  to  see  you/  Then  he 
turned  very  abruptly  from  me  and  again  faced  the  third 
party,  in  whom  I  recognized,  as  the  light  fell  on  his  face, 


124  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

a  lawyer  of  some  prominence  and  an  officeholder  under 
a  previous  administration.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  teeth  were 
set,  and  very  much  in  evidence,  in  the  peculiar  way  they 
always  are  when  he  is  angry.  His  spectacle  lenses  seemed 
to  throw  off  electric  sparks  as  his  head  moved  quickly  this 
way  and  that  in  speaking;  and  his  right  fist  came  down 
from  time  to  time  upon  the  opposite  palm  as  if  it  were  an 
adversary's  face.  And  this  was  about  the  way  he  delivered 
himself: 

' '  Don't  you  feel  ashamed  to  come  to  me  today  with 
another  offer  after  what  you  did  yesterday?  Don't  you 
think  that  to  sell  one  rotten  ship  to  the  government  is 
enough  for  a  single  week?  Are  you  in  such  a  hurry  that 
you  couldn't  wait  even  over  Sunday  to  force  your  dam 
aged  goods  upon  the  United  States?  Is  it  an  excess  of 
patriotism  that  brings  you  here  day  after  day,  in  this  way, 
or  only  your  realization  of  our  necessities?' 

6  Why,  our  clients' —  began  the  lawyer. 

'Yes,  I  know  all  about  your  clients,'  burst  in  the 
Assistant  Secretary.  *I  congratulate  them  on  having  an 
attorney  who  will  do  work  for  them  which  they  wouldn't 
have  the  face  to  do  for  themselves.  I  should  think,  after 
having  enjoyed  the  honors  that  you  have  had  at  the  hands 
of  the  government,  you'd  feel  a  keen  pride  in  your  present 
occupation!  No,  I  don't  want  any  more  of  your  old  tubs. 
The  one  I  bought  yesterday  is  good  for  nothing  except  to 
sink  somewhere  in  the  path  of  the  enemy's  fleet.  It  will 
be  God's  mercy  if  she  doesn't  go  down  with  brave  men 
on  her — men  who  go  to  war  and  risk  their  lives,  instead 
of  staying  home  to  sell  rotten  hulks  to  the  government!' 
"The  air  of  the  attorney  as  he  bowed  himself  out  was 
almost  pitiable.  The  special  glint  did  not  fade  from  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  glasses,  nor  did  his  jaw  relax  or  his  fist  unclinch 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       125 

till  the  door  closed  on  the  retreating  figure,    Then  his  face 
lighted  with  a  smile  as  he  advanced  to  greet  me. 

4  You  came  just  in  time,'  he  cried.  'I  wanted  you  to 
hear  what  I  had  to  say  to  that  fellow;  not' — and  here  his 
voice  rose  on  the  high  falsetto  wave  which  is  always  a  sign 
that  he  is  enjoying  an  idea  while  framing  it  in  words—/ 
'not  that  it  would  add  materially  to  the  sum  of  your  pleas 
ure,  but  that  it  would  humiliate  him  to  have  any  one 
present  while  I  gave  him  his  punishment.  It  is  the  only 
means  I  have  of  getting  even.' ' 

Everywhere  the  lack  of  ships  and  materials  and  facil 
ities  crossed  the  path  of  the  Assistant  Secretary.  He, 
however,  cut  through  red  tape,  disregarded  the  conven 
tions  of  the  department /and,  upon  his  own  initiative, 
proceeded  with  the  task'of  making  ready.  Not  content 
with  speeding  up  manufacturing  processes  at  home  he 
went  into  foreign  markets  to  procure  munitions  and  sup 
plies.  Upon  one  occasion  he  ordered  from  Great  Britain 
a  shipload  of  smokeless  powder.  Ten  days  after  the 
order  had  been  given  a  big  steamship  appeared  off  the 
Maine  coast.  She  was  reported  as  a  derelict.  United 
States  sailors  were  sent  to  board  her,  and  they  found  the 
English  crew  had  left  her  drifting  with  her  cargo.  She 
was  taken  to  the  Boston  yard  where  the  ammunition  was 
unloaded.  A  short  time  later,  after  the  war  began,  Sen 
ator  Gorman,  of  Maryland,  a  member  of  the  Naval 
Committee,  called  upon  President  McKinley  and  urged 
that  restrictions  be  placed  upon  authority  to  order  muni 
tions,  incidentally  using  Mr.  Roosevelt's  action  as  an 
argument. 

With  a  smile,  President  McKinley,  who  had  just 
received  the  resignation  of  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  with  the  announcement  that  he  was  going  into 


126  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

/ 

the  army,  answered  the  irate  Senatoir:  /'Mr.  Roosevelt 
retires  today  to  go  to  the  front." 

In  connection  with  his  efforts  to  buy  ships  Roosevelt 
himself  related  the  following  story:  "One  day  in  the 
spring  of  1898,  when  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  get  the  navy  ready 
for  war,  I  and  my  naval  aid,  Lieutenant  Sharpe,  went 
out  to  buy  auxiliary  cruisers.  On  this  particular  day  we 
had  spent  about  $7,000,000.  It  began  to  rain.  'Sharpe,' 
I  said,  'I  have  only  four  cents  in  my  pocket.  Lend  me  a 
cent  or  five  cents,  will  you,  so  that  I  can  ride  home?' 
Sharp  answered:  'I  haven't  a  single  cent,'  and  I  answered 
him,  'Never  mind,  Sharp,  that's  why  we  will  beat  the 
Spaniards!  It  isn't  every  country  where  two  public  serv 
ants  could  spend  $7,000,000  and  not  have  a  cent  in  their 
pockets  after  they  are  through." 

Facilities  for  taking  care  of  the  ships  in  the  navy  were 
so  poor  that  at  one  time  in  1897  the  battleship  Indiana 
had  to  be  sent  to  Halifax  to  have  the  bottom  scraped  and 
cleaned.  On  the  score  of  ammunition  the  Assistant  Sec 
retary  made  the  remarkable  discovery,  when  he  came 
into  the  department  in  1897,  that  nine  shots  for  each 
ship  were  to  serve  for  a  year's  target  practice !  Appropria 
tions  for  naval  target  practice  had  been  utterly  ridicu 
lous.  "Regulations  for  target  practice,  issued  on  "June 
22,  1897,"  says  John  R.  Spears  in  "The  History  of  our 
Navy,"  provided  that  each  gun  of  a  caliber  of  ten  inches 
or  greater  should  be  fired  once  with  a  full  service  charge, 
and  eight  times  with  a  reduced  charge  every — well,  now, 
in  what  period  of  time  does  the  uninformed  reader  sup 
pose?  Every  month,  in  order  to  make  our  man  behind 
the  gun  the  most  skilful  in  the  world?  That  would  be 
a  reasonable  guess,  but  those  nine  shots  were  to  serve  for 
a  year's  target-practice!  ....  Even  the  guns  of 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       127 

the  rapid-fire  batteries  of  four-inch  and  five-inch  caliber 
which  we  were  to  use  in  repelling  a  torpedo-boat  destroyer 
later  on,  were  to  be  fired  but  twenty-five  times  a  year. 
But  Roosevelt  changed  all  that.  The  pop  and  roar  of 
target-practice  made  the  welkin  ring  the  whole  day  long 
where  the  ships  of  our  squadron  lay." 

Although  the  relations  between  Secretary  Long  and 
his  assistant  were  of  the  most  pleasant  nature,  the  two 
executives  proceeded  along  different  lines  of  action. 
While  Long  remained  conservative  and  cautious  Roose 
velt  forged  ahead  on  an  ambitious  scale  that  kept  em 
ployees  of  the  department,  heads  of  bureaus  and  naval 
officers  asking,  "What  next?"  The  difference  in  the  heads 
of  the  Navy  Department  can  be  aptly  illustrated  by  two 
stories  that  have  come  to  my  attention. 

WTien  the  Maine  was  blown  up,  hot  indignation  raged 
in  the  hearts  of  many  naval  officers.  Among  this  number 
was  "Fighting  Bob"  (Robley  D.)  Evans,  who,  in  a  few 
months,  was  to  gain  undying  fame  at  Santiago.  Evans, 
a  few  days  after  the  Maine  disaster,  said  to  Secretary 
Long: 

"If  I  had  been  in  Admiral  Sicard's  (then  leader  of  the 
North  Atlantic  squadron)  place  I  would  have  taken  my 
entire  squadron  into  Havana  harbor  next  morning,  and 
then  I  would  have  said  to  them,  'Now,  we'll  investigate 
this  matter,  and  let  you  know  what  we  think  of  it  at  once.' 

"If  you  had  done  that,"  the  Secretary  is  recorded  as 
having  replied,  "you  would  have  been  recalled  and 
severely  reprimanded." 

"I  don't  doubt  that,  sir:"  "Fighting  Bob"  replied, 
"but  the  people  would  have  made  me  President  at  the 
next  election." 

Contrast    the    modus    operandi    of    the    Roosevelt 


128  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

brain!  One  day  during  the  early,  part  of  his  tenure  of 
office  in  the  Navy  Department  a  high  officer  of  the  navy, 
noted  for  his  knowledge  of  nautical  technique,  walked  into 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  office  and,  in  the  course  of  a  conversa 
tion,  remarked,  in  an  absent-minded  sort  of  way : 

"I  certainly  think  the  gunboat  Annapolis  should  be 
barkantine  rigged." 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  with  his  customary  vigor,  and  perhaps 
recognizing  the  other's  superior  knowledge  of  naval  mat 
ters,  impulsively  jumped  up  from  the  chair,  banged  his 
fist  on  his  desk  and  cried : 

"Why,  of  course  she  should,  Admiral.  Of  course  she 
should.  I'll  see  that  it  is  done." 

Taking  his  cue  from  the  Admiral,  the  Assistant  Sec 
retary  sat  down  at  once  and  dictated  a  score  of  letters  to 
naval  constructors  and  naval  officers  asking  their  views 
on  the  matter.  When  the  replies  to  the  questionnaire  were 
all  in,  Mr.  Roosevelt  sent  for  the  chief  constructor.  "I 
have  here,"  he  said,  "about  twenty  letters  from  some  of 
the  best  men  in  the  navy,  and  every  one  of  them  says 
he  thinks  the  gunboat  Annapolis  should  be  barkantine 
rigged." 

"I  think  so,  too,' '  said  the  constructor. 

"Then  why  isn't  she  barkantine  rigged?"  demanded 
Mr.  Roosevelt  with  some  heat. 

And  forthwith  the  Annapolis  was  barkantine  rigged! 

The  alarmists  were  busy  when  the  news  came  from  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands  that  the  Spanish  fleet  was  headed 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  agitation  resulted  in  changing 
some  of  the  navy's  plans.  Mobilization  of  our  fleets  had 
begun  in  January,  when  the  battleship  Maine  was  ordered 
to  Havana.  The  North  Atlantic  squadron  was  sent  to  the 
Florida  drill  grounds  loaded  with  ammunition  and  ordered 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       129 

to  engage  in  daily  target  practice.  Vessels  in  European 
station  were  ordered  home.  The  South  Atlantic  squadron 
was  ordered  from  Brazil  to  Key  West.  The  Nation's  naval 
resources  were  mobilized  within  ninety  miles  of  Cuba  and 
held  ready  for  a  surprise  attack.  But  in  the  meantime  the 
cry  for  protection  of  the  Atlantic  coast  was  raised  in  many 
quarters  just  as  it  developed  after  our  entry  into  the 
world  war  and  the  alarmists  felt  apprehensive  over  possible 
German  submarine  attacks.  Roosevelt  helped  dispel 
these  fears  by  assisting  Secretary  Long  in  the  organi 
zation  of  a  "Flying  Squadron"  to  be  maneuvered  in 
defense  of  the  Atlantic  coast  cities,  and  still  another 
northern  patrol  fleet  for  service  off  the  Middle  Atlantic 
and  New  England  coasts.  Roosevelt  regarded  the  send 
ing  of  the  Spanish  fleet  to  Cuba  as  a  cause  of  war,  and 
approved  of  sending  a  squadron  to  it  without  waiting  for 
a  more  formal  declaration  of  war.  Mr.  Leupp  gives  the 
following  account  of  a  characteristic  conversation: 

"One  Sunday  morning  in  March,  1898,  we  were 
sitting  in  his  library  discussing  the  significance  of  the 
news  that  Cervera's  squadron  was  about  to  sail  for 
Cuba,  when  he  suddenly  arose  and  brought  his  hands 
together  with  a  resounding  clap. 

6 'If  I  could  do  what  I  pleased,'  he  exclaimed,  'I  would 
send  Spain  notice  today  that  we  should  consider  her 
despatch  of  that  squadron  a  hostile  act.  Then,  if  she 
didn't  heed  the  warning,  she  would  have  to  take  the  con 
sequences.' 

"'You  are  sure,'  I  asked,  'that  it  is  with  unfriendly 
intent  that  she  is  sending  her  squadron?' 

'What  else  can  it  be?  The  Cubans  have  no  navy; 
therefore  the  squadron  can  not  be  coming  to  fight  the 
insurgents.  The  only  naval  power  interested  in  Cuban 


130  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

affairs  is  the  United  States.  Spain  is  simply  forestalling 
the  "brush"  which  she  knows,  as  we  do,  is  coming  sooner 
or  later/ 

"'And  if  she  refused  to  withdraw  the  orders  to 
Cervera?' 

"'I  should  send  out  a  squadron  to  meet  his  on  the 
high  seas  and  smash  it !  Then  I  would  force  the  fighting 
from  that  day  to  the  end  of  the  war.' ' 

Even  after  Cervera's  squadron  was  cornered  in  the 
harbor  of  Santiago  there  were  many  who  held  that  the 
impending  clash  with  the  Spanish  ships  would  be  a  minor 
matter,  in  so  far  as  the  strategic  conduct  of  the  war  was 
concerned;  that  the  decisive  conflict  would  be  fought  on 
land  in  the  vicinity  of  Havana.  Roosevelt  knew  that 
the  fleet  had  put  into  Santiago  without  coal  instead  of 
proceeding  to  Cienf  uegos  where  it  would  be  in  rail  contact 
with  Havana.  He  figured  that  the  squadron  of  Cervera 
must  eventually  make  a  break  for  liberty  and  take  its 
chances  with  the  American  fleet  on  guard,  and  he  reasoned 
that  the  small  Spanish  army  in  the  vicinity  of  Santiago, 
shut  off  from  reinforcements  by  the  lack  of  rail  connec 
tion  with  Havana,  would  first  be  defeated  by  General 
Shafter's  troops.  With  the  army  defeated  he  had  no 
doubt  as  to  the  fleet's  inability  to  stand  up  before  the 
American  navy.  How  well  he  reasoned  in  the  matter  was 
proved  by  subsequent  events.  His  deductions  were  borne 
out  in  realistic  detail ! 

This  subtle  knack  of  anticipating  the  enemy  was 
characteristic.  During  all  the  time  that  he  was  aiding  in 
the  preparation  of  the  navy  for  the  task  in  hand,  and 
months  before  the  sinking  of  the  Maine  he  pointed  out 
that  the  twin  theaters  of  the  war  would  be  the  West 
Indies  and  the  far  Philippines.  Examination  of  the 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       131 

records  shows  that  the  far-sighted  steps  taken  by  the  Navy 
Department  in  planting  coaling  stations,  supply  depots 
and  maintaining  warships  at  strategic  points,  contributed 
valuably  to  the  splendid  victory  of  Dewey  at  Manila. 
Roosevelt  had  coal  at  Hong  Kong.  He  sent  colliers  into 
the  Pacific  and  bought  other  vessels  to  carry  supplies. 
It  was  his  order  that  turned  back  the  Olympia,  Dewey's 
flagship  at  Manila,  when  it  was  headed  for  the  Mare  Island 
Navy  Yard,  to  the  far  Pacific  station  in  the  Yellow  Sea. 
It  was  due  in  great  measure  to  his  sagacity  that  the 
cruiser  Baltimore  arrived  at  Hong  Kong  just  in  time  to 
join  Dewey  and  depart  with  the  flotilla  for  Manila  after 
the  Chinese  authorities  had  proclaimed  the  neutrality  of 
the  port. 

Roosevelt  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  Dewey.  He 
stood  solidly  for  his  retention  wlien  high  naval  officials 
and  politicians  were  urging  the  selection  of  another  leader 
for  the  Pacific  fleet.  San  Francisco  and  a  few  other 
western  cities  objected  to  the  selection  of  Dewey.  They 
had  in  mind  a  "favorite  son."  But  Roosevelt  stood  to  his 
guns.  One  day  a  delegation  called  upon  him  to  protest 
against  the  Dewey  appointment.  Roosevelt  heard  them 
through  and  then  answered  them  rather  vehemently : 

"Gentlemen,  I  can't  agree  with  you.  We  have  looked 
up  his  record.  We  have  looked  him  straight  in  the  eyes. 
He  is  a  fighter.  We'll  not  change  now.  Pleased  to  have 
met  you.  Good-day,  gentlemen." 

For  a  time  there  was  the  suggestion  of  a  controversy 
as  to  who  had  sent  the  message  to  Admiral  Dewey  direct 
ing  him  to  proceed  to  Manila  and  destroy  the  Spanish 
fleet.  It  was  Secretary  Long  who,  on  April  24, 1898,  sent 
the  following  message  to  Dewey  at  Hong  Kong: 

"War  has  commenced  between  the  United  States  and 


132  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Spain.  Proceed  at  once  to  the^  Philippine  Islands. 
Begin  operations  at  once,  particularly  against  the  Span 
ish  fleet.  You  must  capture  vessels  or  destroy.  Use 
utmost  endeavors." 

It  was  Roosevelt,  however,  who  did  more  than  any  one 
else  in  the  department  to  enable  Dewey  to  have  his  fleet 
on  edge  for  a  conflict  that  was  to  signalize  to  the  whole 
world  the  prowess  of  the  new  American  navy.  On  February 
25th,  just  after  the  destruction  of  the  Maine  at  Havana, 
and  more  than  two  months  before  Dewey 's  fleet  defied 
Cavite  and  bearded  the  "Dons"  in  their  Philippine  den,  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  sent  the  folio  wing  message : 

"Secret  and  confidential.  Order  the  squadron,  except 
the  Monocacy,  to  Hong  Kong.  Keep  full  of  coal.  In 
the  event  of  declaration  of  war  with  Spain  your  duty 
will  be  to  see  that  the  Spanish  squadron  does  not  leave 
the  Asiatic  coast,  and  then  offensive  operations  in  the 
Philippine  Islands.  (Signed)  ROOSEVELT." 

When  the  Navy  Department  ordered  the  Olympia 
home,  it  was  Roosevelt  who  interceded  and  had  the  order 
revoked.  He  then  sent  this  cablegram  to  Dewey: 

"Keep  the  Olympia.     Provide  yourself  with  coal." 

The  coal !  It  was  Roosevelt  who  thus  kept  ready  the 
essential  supplies  so  that  the  ships  might  move  when  the 
time  came.  As  against  this  policy  of  preparedness  we  may 
compare  the  policy  of  the  Spanish  Admiralty  in  ordering 
Cervera  to  sea  without  advance  preparations  for  coaling 
his  fleet.  Had  Cervera  had  coal  he  might  have  made 
Cienf  uegos,  to  which  point  the  bulk  of  the  Spanish  army  of 
twenty  thousand  in  the  vicinity  of  Havana  might  have  been 
transported.  For  lack  of  it,  Cervera  put  into  Santiago,  at 
which  point  occurred  the  final  disaster  to  Spanish  arms. 

Secretary  Long,  in  spite  of  rumors  to  the  contrary,  had 


ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  NAVY       133 

a  distinct  admiration  for  Roosevelt,  though  he  by  no 
means  always  agreed  with  him.  Their  points  of  view  and 
temperaments  were  as  wide  apart  as  the  poles.  The  Sec 
retary  was  not  a  man  to  "start  something"  every  fifteen 
minutes;  Roosevelt  was.  Writing  some  time  after  the 
war,  Mr.  Long,  in  recounting  Roosevelt's  connection  with 
and  work  in  the  department,  says : 

"His  activity  was  characteristic.  He  was  zealous  in 
the  work  of  putting  the  navy  in  condition  for  the  appre 
hended  struggle.  His  ardor  sometimes  went  faster  than 
the  President  or  the  department  approved.  .  .  . 
He  worked  indefatigably,  frequently  incorporating  his 
views  in  memoranda  which  he  would  place  every  morning 
on  my  desk.  Most  of  his  suggestions  had,  however,  so  far 
as  applicable,  been  already  adopted  by  the  various  bureaus 
the  chiefs  of  which  were  straining  every  nerve  and  leaving 
nothing  undone.  When  I  suggested  to  him  that  some 
future  historian  reading  his  memoranda,  if  they  were  put 
on  record,  would  get  the  impression  that  the  bureaus 
were  inefficient,  he  accepted  the  suggestion  with  the 
generous  good  nature  which  is  so  marked  in  him.  Indeed, 
nothing  could  be  pleasanter  than  our  relations.  He  was 
heart  and  soul  in  his  work.  His  typewriters  had  no  rest. 
He,  like  most  of  us,  lacks  the  rare  knack  of  brevity.  He 
was  especially  stimulating  to  the  younger  officers  who  gath 
ered  about  him,  and  made  his  office  as  busy  as  a  hive.  He 
was  especially  helpful  in  the  purchasing  of  ships  and  in  every 
line  where  he  could  push  on  the  work  of  preparation  for  war. ' ' 

Somewhat  hesitating  praise,  perhaps,  but  enough  to 
show  that  the  country  was  right  in  its  belief  that  it  owed 
much  that  had  been  done  in  the  year  preceding  the  Span 
ish  War  to  the  far-sightedness,  energy  and  ability  of  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 


CHAPTER  IX 

COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS 

A  FEW  weeks  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with 
Spain,  Mr.  William  Potter,  of  Philadelphia,  form 
erly  the  United  States  Ambassador  to  Italy, 
called  on  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  at  his  office 
in  Washington.  Roosevelt  said: 

"I  leave  for  the  front  tomorrow.  Everybody  in 
Washington  whose  opinion  I  respect,  the  President,  the 
Secretary,  and  even  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  think  I  can  be  of 
more  service  by  remaining  at  my  post  in  the  Navy 
Department,  but  I  have  always  said  if  my  country  ever 
engaged  in  war,  I  should  take  part,  so  I  am  going  off 
tomorrow." 

He  believed  that  as  he  had  preached  with  all  the 
fervor  and  zeal  he  possessed  our  duty  to  intervene  in 
Cuba,  now  that  war  had  come  to  drive  the  Spaniard  from 
the  western  world  it  was  incumbent  on  him  to  take  an 
active  part  in  it,  not  in  Washington,  but  at  the  front. 
Even  before  war  was  declared,  he  and  h^s  friend,  Doctor, 
now  General,  Leonard  Wood,  had  been  planning  how  to 
get  to  the  front  when  war  came.  Roosevelt's  first 
effort,  which  was  to  secure  a  position  in  a  New  York 
regiment,  failed.  Then  the  provision  in  the  act  of 
Congress  providing  for  three  cavalry  regiments  to  be 
recruited  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  gave  him  his 
opportunity.  Leonard  Wood  was  the  physician  of  the 
Secretary  of  War,  Russell  Alexander  Alger.  As  the  one 
member  of  the  Cabinet  who  always  believed  that  war 

(134) 


COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS      135 

with  Spain  was  inevitable,  the  Secretary  had  always 
sympathized  with  Roosevelt's  point  of  view.  It  was 
therefore  not  a  difficult  matter  for  him  to  persuade  the 
Secretary  that  Wood  should  be  appointed  colonel,  and 
himself  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  "  First  United  States 
Volunteer  Cavalry."  Indeed,  Roosevelt  might  have 
secured  the  colonelcy  for  himself,  making  Wood  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  but  he  wisely  determined  that  he  had 
not  as  yet  sufficient  experience  to  command  a  regiment. 

Colonel  Wood  at  once  devoted  all  his  time  to  recruiting 
the  regiment  and  securing  the  necessary  supplies,  the 
latter,  in  view  of  the  entire  unreadiness  of  the  War 
Department  for  war,  a  most  difficult  undertaking.  Wood 
preceded  Roosevelt  to  San  Antonio,  the  place  selected 
for  the  mobilization  of  the  regiment,  Roosevelt  remaining 
in  Washington  to  finish  his  work  at  the  Navy  Department. 
Indeed,  he  did  not  resign  as  Assistant  Secretary  until 
May  6th.  His  chief,  Secretary  Long,  has  left  us  an  inter 
esting  picture  of  this  period  of  transition  from  one  branch 
of  the  service  to  another: 

"His  (Roosevelt's)  room  in  the  Navy  Department, 
after  his  decision  to  enter  the  army,  which  preceded  by 
some  time  his  resignation  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  was  an  interesting  scene.  It  bubbled  over  with 
enthusiasm  and  was  filled  with  bright  young  fellows  from 
all  over  the  country,  college  graduates  and  old  associates 
from  the  western  ranches,  all  eager  to  serve  Roosevelt. 
The  Rough  Rider  uniform  was  in  evidence;  it  filled  the 
corridors — guns,  uniforms,  all  sorts  of  military  traps,  and 
piles  of  paper  littered  the  Assistant  Secretary's  room, 
but  it  was  all  the  very  inspiration  of  young  manhood." 

When  it  was  announced  that  Wood  and  Roosevelt 
were  organizing  a  cavalry  regiment,  telegrams  poured  in 


136  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

from  men  all  over  the  country  who  were  eager  to  join  it. 
They  could  have  raised  a  brigade,  as  far  as  men  were 
concerned,  without  the  slightest  trouble.  From  the  fact 
that  many  cowboys  and  other  "rough-and-ready  West 
erners"  were  accepted,  the  regiment  became  known  in 
the  army  and  by  the  people  as  the  "Rough  Riders" — a 
term  taken  from  the  slang  of  the  circus.  Its  colonels  did 
not  relish  the  title  at  first,  but  it  "stuck,"  and,  like  many 
another  term  applied  in  humor  or  derision,  it  became  a 
title  of  honor.  It  was  made  up  of  the  greatest  variety 
of  men,  with  the  strongest  contrasts  possible  to  bring 
together.  Roosevelt,  in  his  book,  "The  Rough  Riders," 
has  described  its  paradoxical  make-up: 

"We  drew  recruits  from  Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton 
and  many  another  college;  from  clubs  like  the  Somerset 
of  Boston,  and  Knickerbocker  of  New  York;  and  from 
among  the  men  who  belonged  neither  to  club  nor  to 
college.  Four  of  the  policemen  who  had  served  under 
me  while  I  was  president  of  the  New  York  Police  Board 
insisted  on  coming.  It  seemed  to  me  that  almost  every 
friend  I  had  in  every  state  had  some  one  acquaintance 
who  was  bound  to  go  with  the  Rough  Riders,  and  for 
whom  I  had  to  make  a  place. 

"Harvard  being  my  own  college,  I  had  such  a  swarm 
of  applications  from  it  that  I  could  not  take  one  in 
ten.  They  did  not  ask  for  commissions.  With  hardly 
an  exception  they  entered  upon  their  duties  as  troopers 
in  the  spirit  which  they  held  to  the  end.  Not  a  man  of 
them  backed  out;  not  one  of  them  failed  to  do  his  duty. 

"Then  I  went  down  to  San  Antonio,  where  Wood 
preceded  me,  and  found  the  men  from  New  Mexico, 
Arizona,  and  Oklahoma  already  gathered,  while  those 
from  Indian  Territory  came  in  soon  after  my  arrival. 


00  < 


COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS      137 

"All — Easterners  and  Westerners,  Northerners  and 
Southerners,  officers  and  men,  cow  boys  and  college 
graduates,  wherever  they  came  from,  whatever  their 
social  position — possessed  in  common  the  traits  of  hardi 
hood  and  a  thirst  for  adventure.  They  were  to  a  man 
born  adventurers,  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word.  Some 
of  them  went  by  their  own  names;  some  had  changed 
their  names;  and  yet  others  possessed  but  half  a  name, 
colored  by  some  adjective,  like  Cherokee  Bill,  Happy 
Jack  of  Arizona,  Smoky  Moore,  the  broncho-buster,  and 
Rattlesnake  Pete.  Some  were  professional  gamblers,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  no  less  than  four  had  been  or  were 
Baptist  or  Methodist  clergymen — and  proved  first-class 
fighters,  by  the  way. 

"From  the  Indian  Territory  there  came  a  number  of 
Indians — Cherokees,  Chickasaws,  Choctaws  and  Creeks. 
One  of  the  gamest  and  best  fighters  of  the  regiment  was 
Pollock,  a  full-blooded  Pawnee.  Another  Indian  came 
from  Texas.  His  name  \vas  Colbert;  he  was  an  excellent 
man,  and  a  descendant  of  the  old  Chickasaw  chiefs. 

"There  were  men  wlio  had  w^on  fame  as  Rocky 
Mountain  stage-drivers,  or  who  had  spent  endless  days 
guiding  the  slow  wagon-trains  across  the  grassy  plains. 
There  were  miners  who  knew  every  camp  from  the 
Yukon  to  Leadville,  and  cow-punchers  in  whose  mem 
ories  were  stored  the  brands  carried  by  the  herds  from 
Chihuahua  to  Assinaboid." 

Also  there  was  a  North  Carolina  mountaineer  who 
had  hunted  "moonshiners,"  a  bear-hunter  from  Wyom 
ing,  and  a  big  buffalo-hunter.  One  "high  private"  had 
been  chief  of  scouts  in  the  Kiel  Rebellion,  in  the  wild 
northwestern  region  of  Canada,  and  there  was  a  famous 
broncho-buster  named  McGinty,  who  could  not  march  in 


138  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

step  because  he  had  spent  most  of  bis  life  on  horseback. 
He  said  if  he  had  a  horse  he  could  make  it  march  all  right. 
There  was  an  Italian  trumpeter  who  had  seen  service  in 
Egypt  and  southern  China.  Of  their  names  among 
themselves,  their  Colonel  added: 

"The  men  speedily  gave  one  another  nicknames, 
largely  conferred  in  a  spirit  of  derision,  their  basis  lying 
in  contrast.  A  brave  but  fastidious  member  of  a  well- 
known  eastern  club,  who  was  serving  in  the  ranks,  was 
christened  'Tough  Ike;'  and  his  bunkie,  the  man  who 
shared  his  shelter-tent,  who  was  a  decidedly  rough  cow- 
puncher,  gradually  acquired  the  name  of  'The  Dude.' 
One  unlucky  and  simple-minded  cow-puncher,  who  had 
never  been  east  of  the  great  plains  in  his  life,  unwarily 
boasted  that  he  had  an  aunt  in  New  York,  and  ever 
afterward  went  by  the  name  of  'Metropolitan  Bill.' 
A  huge,  red-headed  Irishman  was  named  'Sheeny  Solo 
mon.'  ,  A  young  Jew  who  developed  into  one  of  the  best 
fighters  in  the  regiment,  accepted,  with  entire  equanimity, 
the  name  of  'Pork-chop.'  We  had  quite  a  number  of 
professional  gamblers,  who,  I  am  bound  to  say,  usually 
made  good  soldiers.  One,  who  was  almost  abnormally 
quiet  and  gentle,  was  called  'Hell  Roarer;'  while  another, 
who,  in  point  of  language  and  deportment,  was  his  exact 
opposite,  was  christened  'Prayerful  James.'  : 

"Embarrassment  of  riches"  was  the  greatest  problem 
confronting  the  two  colonels  of  the  First  Volunteer 
Cavalry.  The  question  was  not  whom  to  accept,  but 
whom  to  reject.  The  Rough  Riders  came  together 
through  the  evolutionary  process  of  "natural  selection" 
and  "survival  of  the  fittest" — to  fight,  for  they  were 
a  nondescript  company  of  born  fighters  and  fighters  by 
preference  and  training. 


COLONEL  OF  THE   ROUGH  RIDERS      139 

When  the  regiment  was  complete — up  to  the  increased 
quota  of  one  thousand  men — its  leading  officers  found 
that  their  troubles  were  only  beginning — not  on  account 
of  the  men,  however,  but  because  of  the  delays  in  trans 
portation  and  the  improvident,  if  not  absolutely  corrupt, 
commissary  conditions. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1898,  they  were  enabled  to 
leave  San  Antonio,  Texas,  for  Tampa,  Florida,  where 
they  were  to  embark  for  Cuba.  They  spent  four  hot 
days  and  humid  nights  on  the  way.  Colonel  Roosevelt, 
in  order  to  see  that  his  men  were  made  as  comfortable  as 
possible,  waited  for  the  seventh  and  last  train.  Then 
he  rode  in  a  dirty  old  ramshackle  day-coach,  which 
was  overcrowded  and  uncomfortable,  because  he  had 
given  his  sleeping-car  berth  to  a  sick  soldier.  The 
rations  issued,  bad  as  they  were,  proved  insufficient 
before  they  reached  their  port  of  embarkation.  The 
Rough  Riders  had  already  appealed  to  the  heart  of  the 
country — especially  in  hospitable,  chivalrous  Dixie — so 
that  their  trains  \vere  greeted  by  cheering  crowds,  and 
pretty  girls  met  the  boys  at  the  stations,  swapping 
bouquets  for  brass  buttons,  until  the  soldiers  hardly  had 
the  necessary  complement  left.  Their  uniforms  were  a 
novelty,  in  America,  at  least,  with  the  broad-brimmed 
hats  and  "dust-colored"  suits.  Uniforms  of  that  hue 
were  first  worn  by  British  soldiers  in  India — the  word  for 
dusty  in  the  Hindoo  speech  being  khaki.  The  British 
Indian  "khaki"  was  afterward  modified  to  olive  green. 
When  they  finally  reached  Tampa,  they  found  every 
thing  in  confusion.  After  wasting  nearly  a  week  it  was 
suddenly  announced  that  they  were  to  sail  from  Port 
Tampa,  nine  miles  away,  early  the  next  day.  Trains 
were  supposed  to  be  provided,  but  as  they  did  not 


140  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

materialize,  the  two  colonels  and  .their  men  took  pos 
session  of  some  empty  coal  cars  and  "by  various  means" 
not  stated,  induced  the  engineer  to  back  down  to  Tampa, 
where  they  arrived  covered  with  coal  dust,  but  with  all 
their  belongings  and  before  the  hour  named  for  departure. 
The  wharf  was  jammed  with  over  10,000  troops.  No 
one  seemed  to  know  which  troops  were  to  go  upon  any 
particular  transport.  When  they  finally  were  assigned  a 
transport,  the  Yucatan,  Roosevelt  discovered  that  the 
same  ship  had  been  assigned  to  two  other  regiments,  one 
of  which  was  sufficient  to  fill  the  vessel  to  overflowing. 
Accordingly  he  ran  at  full  speed  back  to  the  coal  train, 
double-quicked  the  men  on  to  the  wharf,  and  had  them 
take  possession  of  the  vessel  the  moment  it  touched  the 
wharf.  In  this  case,  possession  was  eleven  points  of  the 
law.  The  men  were  packed  like  sardines — hot,  steaming 
and  uncomfortable,  but  they  would  have  reconciled  them 
selves  to  anything  for  the  sake  of  getting  into  the  fight. 

Next  day  they  received  word  that  the  vessels  were 
not  to  sail,  but  await  further  orders. 

There  followed  a  delay  of  nearly  a  week  in  their 
cramped  quarters,  Colonel  Roosevelt  tells  us  that  "The 
travel  rations  which  had  been  issued  to  the  men  for  the 
voyage  were  insufficient,  because  the  meat  was  very  bad 
indeed;  and  when  a  ration  consists  of  only  four  or  five 
items,  which,  taken  together,  just  meet  the  requirements 
of  a  strong  and  healthy  man,  the  loss  of  one  item  is  a 
serious  thing.  If  we  had  been  given  canned  corn-beef, 
we  would  have  been  all  right,  but  instead  of  this,  the 
soldiers  were  issued  horrible  stuff  called  'canned  fresh 
beef.'  There  was  no  salt  in  it.  At  the  best,  it  was 
stringy  and  tasteless;  at  the  worst  it  was  nauseating. 
Not  one-fourth  of  it  was  ever  eaten  at  all,  even  when  the 


COLONEL  OF  THE   ROUGH  RIDERS      141 

men  became  very  hungry.  There  were  no  facilities  for 
the  men  to  cook  anything.  There  was  no  ice  for  them; 
the  water  was  not  good;  and  they  had  no  fresh  meat  or 
fresh  vegetables." 

Finally  the  transport  started.  Sailing  southward  and 
east  along  the  northern  shore  of  Cuba,  they  rounded  its 
eastern  end  and  disembarked  at  Daiquiri,  near  the 
entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Santiago  de  Cuba.  The  officers 
were  permitted  to  bring  their  horses.  Colonel  Roosevelt 
brought  two— "Texas"  and  "Rain-in-the-Face."  In 
swimming  ashore,  "Rain-in-the-Face"  was  drowned. 

The  landing  was  effected  under  the  protection  of  a 
heavy  bombardment  from  American  warships.  Accord 
ing  to  a  red-tape  regulation  by  which  uniforms  for  winter 
were  issued  in  summer,  the  men  received  winter  clothing 
for  a  midsummer  campaign  in  the  tropics.  Their  woolen 
clothing  added  to  the  horrors  of  the  almost-equatorial 
sun  and  the  daily  downpour  of  warm  rains.  Throwing 
away  their  garments  like  a  routed  army,  they  trudged 
wearily  back  from  the  coast  toward  the  town  of  Santiago. 
The  regular  foot-soldiers  seemed  to  enjoy  the  predicament 
of  the  much-heralded  Rough  Riders  and  dubbed  them 
"Wood's  Weary  Walkers."  At  night  they  dried  their 

(remaining  clothing  before  their  campfires.  Colonels 
Wood  and  Roosevelt,  unable  to  wait  at  the  landing-place 
for  their  personal  baggage,  took  with  them  only  their 
raincoats  and  toothbrushes. 

Marching,  Indian  file,  through  jungles  and  morasses, 
they  soon  encountered  the  Spaniards.  They  were  made 
aware  of  the  presence  of  the  enemy  by  hearing,  overhead, 
a  peculiar  singing  like  that  of  telegraph  wires.  Then  the 
singing  changed  to  "zip — zip — zip"  through  the  tall 
grass,  but  they  did  not  realize  the  cause  of  the  uncanny 


142  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

sounds  till  they  heard  sickening  thuds  and  saw  their 
comrades  fall.  The  sounds  were  produced  by  Mauser 
bullets  which,  by  revolving  and  exploding,  made  jagged 
and  painful  wounds. 

Both  Colonel  Wood  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Roosevelt 
persisted  in  sharing  the  hardships  and  privations  of  the 
men  in  the  ranks,  and  in  going  before  the  men  into  battle, 
though  the  privates  protested  against  their  leaders  expos 
ing  themselves  in  this  reckless  way. 

The  plainsmen,  accustomed  to  remounting  and  going 
on  with  a  round-up,  even  with  a  broken  arm  or  leg,  could 
not  understand  why  they  should  stop  fighting  when 
wounded.  Colonel  Roosevelt,  noticing  a  broncho- 
buster  bleeding  profusely,  ordered  the  man  to  the  rear. 
He  hobbled  away,  but  had  returned  in  fifteen  minutes 
with  his  wound  bandaged. 

Another  case  of  humoring  his  superior  officer  was  that 
of  Rowland,  of  New  Mexico.  The  Colonel  noticed  that 
he  was  wounded. 

"Where  are  you  hurt,  Rowland?"  he  inquired. 

"Aw,  they  caved  in  a  couple  of  ribs  on  me,  I  reckon," 
answered  the  man. 

Colonel  Roosevelt  ordered  him  to  go  to  the  hospital 
and  let  them  take  care  of  him  there.  This  being  the  New 
Mexican's  first  engagement,  he  argued  against  going;  but 
the  Colonel's  order  was  peremptory,  so  he  started  back, 
grumbling.  In  about  half  an  hour  Colonel  Roosevelt  saw 
Rowland  fighting  again  in  the  front  ranks. 

"I  thought  you  were  told  to  go  to  the  hospital,"  he 
said  to  the  man. 

"Aw — I  couldn't  find  the  hospital,"  said  Rowland, 
exasperated. 

Major-General  "Fighting  Joe"  Wheeler  was  in  com- 


COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS      143 

mand  of  the  whole  force  at  this  time,  but  the  Rough 
Riders  were  brigaded  with  the  First  and  Tenth  Regular 
Cavalry,  under  General  S.  M.  B.  Young,  who  had  said 
to  Roosevelt  and  Wood,  months  before: 

"If  war  comes,  I  will  try  to  have  you  attached  to  my 
command,  if  I  have  one,  and  I'll  give  you  a  chance  to  see 
some  fighting." 

General  Young  kept  his  word.  The  action  at  Las 
Guasimas,  on  June  24th,  two  days  after  the  landing  at 
Daiquiri,  was  the  Rough  Riders'  baptism  of  fire.  They 
lost  eight  men  killed  and  thirty-four  wounded.  It  was 
in  this  battle  that  Captain  Capron,  who,  Roosevelt  said, 
was  perhaps  the  best  soldier  in  the  regiment,  and  Sergeant 
Hamilton  Fish,  Jr.,  lost  their  lives.  At  first,  Wood  and 
Roosevelt  had  some  difficulty  with  their  men,  who  had  a 
tendency  to  fight,  each  man  on  his  own  account,  as 
Indians,  or,  in  their  eagerness,  would  crowd  together  and 
impede  each  other. 

The  Rough  Riders  who  fell  are  buried  in  a  common 
grave.  Of  them,  Colonel  Roosevelt  has  said:  "Indian 
and  cowboy,  miner,  packer  and  college  athlete — the  man 
of  unknown  ancestry  from  the  lonely  western  plains  and 
the  man  who  carried  on  his  watch  the  crests  of  the  Stuy- 
vesants  and  the  Fishes — were  one  in  the  way  they  had 
met  death,  just  as  during  life  they  had  been  one  in  their 
daring  and  their  loyalty." 

That  evening,  a  Spanish  officer  said  to  the  British 
Consul  at  Santiago: 

"The  Americans  do  not  fight  like  other  men.  When 
we  fire,  they  run  right  toward  us.  We  are  not  used  to 
fighting  men  who  act  so." 

General  Young  was  taken  ill  with  fever  and  as  Colonel 
Wood  had  to  take  his  place,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Roosevelt 


144  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

took  command,  as  Colonel  of  the  First  Volunteer  Cavalry. 
After  nearly  a  week  of  inaction,  an  order  came,  on 
June  30th,  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness.  That  night 
they  slept  on  El  Paso  Hill,  where  the  soldiers  found  some 
good  food  left  by  Spaniards  in  their  flight.  Colonel 
Roosevelt,  instead  of  appropriating  a  building  for  his 
headquarters,  slept  on  the  ground,  with  his  raincoat  for 
covering,  and  his  saddle  for  a  pillow. 

Next  morning,  July  1st,  the  battle  began,  near  San 
tiago — at  El  Caney  and  San  Juan  Hill.  Colonel  Roosevelt 
rode  Texas.  They  could  see  the  enemy,  intrenched  on 
an  eminence  which  was  afterwards  called  "Kettle  Hill." 
The  regular  troops  did  not  advance.  Colonel  Roosevelt 
rode  up  to  the  regular  army  officer  and  said,  "I  am 
ordered  to  support  you  in  your  attack." 

The  regular  officer  merely  nodded  assent. 

"And  you  are  waiting  for  orders  to  advance?"  Colonel 
Roosevelt  continued. 

The  officer  nodded  again. 

"Then  I  am  the  ranking  officer  here,  and  I  give  you 
the  order  to  attack." 

The  surprised  officer  hesitated,  looking  doubtfully  at 
the  insistent  Colonel. 

"Then  let  my  men  through,  Sir,"  said  the  Colonel, 
and  his  men  went  through,  grinning.  The  regulars,  with 
a  whoop,  followed  them,  and  as  the  Colonel  waved  his 
hat,  they  all  went  up  the  hill  in  a  rush.  Colonel  Roosevelt 
dismounted  and  turned  Texas  loose,  leading  his  men  on 
foot.  There  was  hot  and  incessant  firing  on  both  sides. 
The  Americans  were  at  a  disadvantage,  as  they  had  com 
mon  black  powder,  while  the  enemy's  powder  was  smoke 
less.  It  was  here  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  received  his  only 
wound,  when  a  bullet  nicked  his  elbow. 


COLONEL  OF  THE   ROUGH  RIDERS      145 

When  they  had  taken  Kettle  Hill,  the  next  objective 
was  San  Juan  Hill.  Of  the  famous  capture  of  this  strong 
hold,  Colonel  Roosevelt  has  given  the  following  account, 
in  "The  Rough  Riders:" 

"The  infantry  got  nearer  and  nearer  the  crest  of  the 
hill.  At  last  we  could  see  the  Spaniards  running  from  the 
rifle-pits  as  the  Americans  came  on  in  their  final  rush. 
Then  I  stopped  my  men,  for  fear  they  should  injure  their 
comrades,  and  called  to  them  to  charge  the  next  line  of 
trenches  on  the  hills  in  our  front,  from  which  we  had  been 
undergoing  a  good  deal  of  punishment. 

" Thinking  that  the  men  would  all  come  I  jumped 
over  the  wire  fence  in  front  of  us,  and  started  at  the 
double;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  troopers  were  so 
excited,  what  with  shooting  and  being  shot,  and  shouting 
and  cheering,  that  they  did  not  hear  or  did  not  heed  me; 
and  after  running  about  a  hundred  yards,  I  found  I  had 
only  five  men  along  with  me."  (One  of  these  was  mor 
tally  wounded  and  another  shot  in  the  leg.) 

"There  was  no  use  going  on  with  the  remaining  three 
men,  and  I  bade  them  stay  where  they  were  while  I  went 
back  and  brought  up  the  rest  of  the  brigade.  .  .  They 
cheerfully  nodded  and  sat  down  in  the  grass,  firing  back 
at  the  line  of  trenches  from  wrhich  the  Spaniards  were 
shooting  at  them. 

"Meanwhile,  I  ran  back,  jumped  over  the  wire  fence, 
and  went  over  the  crest  of  the  hill,  filled  with  anger  against 
the  troopers,  and  especially  those  of  my  own  regiment,  for 
not  having  accompanied  me.  They,  of  course,  were  quite 
innocent  of  wrong-doing;  and  even  while  I  taunted  them 
bitterly  for  not  having  followed  me,  it  was  all  I  could  do 
not  to  smile  at  the  look  of  inquiry  and  surprise  that  came 
over  their  faces,  while  they  cried  out: 
10 


146  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"We  didn't  hear  you — we  didn't  see  you  go,  Colonel; 
lead  on,  now,  we'll  sure  follow  you." 

Back  they  went,  up  San  Juan  Hill,  the  regulars,  white 
and  black,  mixed  with  the  Rough  Riders.  The  Rough 
Riders  accepted  the  colored  regulars  with  hearty  good 
will,  and  were  willing,  in  their  own  phrase,  "to  drink  out 
of  the  same  canteen." 

The  day's  losses  were  heavy.  Out  of  less  than  five 
hundred  Rough  Riders  engaged,  eighty -nine  were  killed 
or  wounded,  the  greatest  loss  of  any  regiment  in  the 
cavalry  division  engaged. 

This  was  the  final  engagement  of  the  war.  A  fortnight 
later  Santiago  surrendered,  and  the  army  settled  down 
to  await  further  orders  from  Washington.  The  health  of 
the  troops  was  poor,  and  they  were  ravished  by  dysentery 
and  malaria.  The  War  Department  apparently  took  no 
interest  in  the  situation,  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
issue  the  necessary  orders  for  the  return  of  the  army  to 
the  United  States. 

At  last,  General  Shafter  called  a  council  of  his  division 
and  brigade  commanders  and  his  chief  medical  officers. 
Roosevelt,  who  had  been  made  commander  of  his  brigade, 
attended  the  conference.  All  agreed  that  an  authorita 
tive  publication  should  be  made  which  would  compel 
action  by  the  War  Department  before  it  was  too  late. 
The  officers  of  the  regular  army  were  afraid  to  incur  the 
hostility  of  their  superiors  at  Washington,  and  therefore 
persuaded  Roosevelt  to  make  the  necessary  statement. 
This  he  did,  putting  it  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Shafter. 
When  he  handed  the  letter  to  Shafter,  the  General  refused 
to  take  it,  but  passed  it  on  to  the  correspondent  of  the 
Associated  Press,  who  was  present.  At  the  same  time, 
General  Ames  made  a  statement  to  the  correspondent, 


COLONEL  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS      14? 

and  General  Wood  wrote  a  round-robin  letter  addressed 
to  General  Shafter,  in  which  Roosevelt  and  others  joined, 
setting  forth  the  precarious  situation  of  the  army. 

As  a  result  of  these  representations,  the  necessary 
orders  were  finally  issued,  and  the  army  began  its  home 
ward  journey.  The  Rough  Riders  debarked  at  Montauk 
Point,  at  the  extreme  eastern  end  of  Long  Island. 

The  newspapers  reported  at  the  time  that  when  the 
vessel  neared  the  wharf,  the  Colonel  was  observed  leaning 
over  the  stern.  Some  one  on  the  wharf  called  to  him, 
inquiring  whether  he  had  had  a  good  time.  £Yes,"  he 
shouted  back,  "we  had  a  bully  fight."  True  or  not,  the 
story  is  characteristic. 


CHAPTER  X 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK 

NO  sooner  had  Roosevelt  landed  at  Montauk 
Point,  than  he  became  tjie  center  of  political 
interest.  The  situation  of  the  Republican  party 
in  New  York  was  at  this  time  orfiical  in  the  extreme.  In 
the  1897  mayoralty  contest  in  New  York  City,  United 
States  Senator  Thomas  C.  Platt's  stalwarts  had  broken 
with  the  independents,  and  as  a  result  the  Democrats  had 
not  only  elected  their  candidate  for  mayor  but  had  also 
carried  the  state  by  a  majority  of  61,000.  In  the  coming 
campaign  for  Governor,  Governor  Black  was  considered 
a  weak  candidate  for  re-election.  During  his  administra 
tion  the  control  of  the  state  canals  had  given  rise  to  serious 
scandals,  which  afforded  excellent  campaign  material  for 
the  Democrats.  The  Republicans  faced  defeat  unless 
they  could  find  a  nominee  who  would  be  acceptable  not 
only  to  the  party  leaders  but  also  to  the  independents. 

Platt  was  at  this  time  the  undisputed  leader  of  the 
.Republican  party  in  New  York  State.  He  had  been  active 
in  the  organization  for  twenty -five  years  and  he  owned  it, 
lock,  stock  and  barrel.  He  was  reluctant  to  endorse 
Roosevelt  for  the  nomination,  because  Roosevelt  was  not 
the  type  of  Republican  to  whom  he  was  accustomed  to 
give  orders.  But  a  desperate  situation  demanded  a 
desperate  remedy,  and  repeated  suggestions  from  local 
leaders  indicated  that  Roosevelt  was  the  only  man  who 
might  conceivably  pull  the  party  through. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  Lemuel  E.  Quigg,  an  old  friend 

(148) 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  149 

of  Roosevelt's  and  an  active  man  in  the  party,  called  upon 
the  Colonel  in  the  camp  at  Montauk  Point.  He  was 
anxious  to  know  not  only  whether  Roosevelt  would  accept 
the  nomination,  if  it  were  offered  to  him,  but  also  whether 
if  he  were  elected  he  would  immediately  make  war  upon 
Senator  Platt  and  the  Senator's  lieutenants,  disregarding 
their  advice  and  wishes  entirely.  Roosevelt  answered 
that  he  wanted  to  be  Governor,  that  if  he  were  to  become 
Governor  he  would  not  make  war  upon  Senator  Platt  or 
upon  anyone  else  unless  compelled  to  do  so ;  that  he  w^ould 
consult  organization  men  and  independents  alike;  but 
that  in  every  question  the  final  decision  wrould  necessarily 
be  his  own,  arrived  at  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience  and  in  the  exercise  of  his  best  judgment.  With 
this  statement  Quigg  was  satisfied,  and  with  it  Senator 
Platt  was  perforce  content. 

Meanwhile,  the  independents  of  the  Citizens'  Union 
Party  had  tendered  to  Roosevelt  the  nomination  for  the 
governorship.  He  gave  careful  consideration  to  their 
proposal  but  was  inclined  to  feel  that  his  place  was  within 
his  own  party.  On  a  morning  toward  the  end  of  Septem 
ber  came  the  time  for  a  final  decision.  As  he  wras  break 
fasting  at  his  sister's  house  in  New  York,  he  turned  to 
one  of  his  friends,  who  has  repeated  the  conversation  to 
me,  and  said:  "This  morning  in  this  house  two  delega 
tions  are  to  be  here — one,  the  Citizens  Union  Party,  who 
say  that  if  I  take  the  regular  Republican  nomination  for 
Governor  of  New  York,  I  will  be  a  'dead  cock  in  the  pit' 
politically,  and  the  other  is  a  committee  of  the  New  York 
Republicans,  to  offer  me  the  regular  nomination  for 
Governor.  I  shall  accept  it,  as  I  believe  I  have  a  better 
chance  to  do  good  by  cleaning  up  the  Republican  party 
within  the  organization." 


150  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  carrying  his  determination  into  effect,  he  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  independents  in  which,  after  declining  the 
honor  which  they  had  offered  him,  he  said: 

"I  write  this  with  great  reluctance,  for  I  wish  the 
support  of  every  independent.  If  elected  Governor,  I 
would  try  to  serve  the  state  as  a  whole,  and  to  serve 
my  party  by  helping  to  serve  the  state.  I  should  greatly 
like  the  aid  of  the  independents  and  I  appreciate  the  im 
portance  of  the  independent  vote,  but  I  cannot  accept  a 
nomination  on  terms  that  would  make  me  feel  disloyal 
to  the  principles  for  which  I  stand,  or  at  the  cost  of  act 
ing  with  what  seems  to  me  bad  faith  towards  my 
associates." 

On  September  27th,  the  Republican  State  Convention 
met  at  Saratoga.  The  names  of  Governor  Black  and  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt  were  both  placed  before  the  con 
vention.  Black  had  a  considerable  following,  who  vehe 
mently  urged  his  renomination,  but  the  large  majority  of 
the  delegates  were  convinced  of  Black's  ineligibility  on 
account  of  the  canal  scandals,  and  were  further  convinced 
that  only  a  highly  popular  man,  who  could  take  hold  upon 
the  popular  imagination,  would  have  any  chance  of  suc 
cess.  Roosevelt  was  accordingly  nominated  by  a  vote  of 
753  to  218. 

The  Citizens'  Union  Party  had  hoped  that  Roosevelt 
would  accept  their  nomination  and  that  they  would  be 
able  to  force  him  as  their  nominee  upon  Platt  and  the 
regular  Republicans.  Failing  in  this  project  they  put 
their  own  candidates  in  the  field  headed  by  Theodore 
Bacon,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Rochester.  The  Democrats 
met  in  convention  on  September  29th,  and  chose  Augustus 
Van  Wyck,  of  Brooklyn,  to  head  their  ticket.  Van 
Wyck  was  a  judge  of  respectable  character  and  attain- 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  151 

ments,  and  a  brother  of  Mayor  Van  Wyck,  of  New 
York  City. 

Roosevelt  opened  his  campaign  on  October  17th,  and 
for  three  weeks  pursued  it  with  great  vigor.  The  issue 
most  discussed  was  the  canal  scandal.  The  Colonel 
refused  to  express  an  opinion  as  to  whether  or  not  there 
had  actually  been  any  wrong-doing,  but  he  promised  a 
full  and  impartial  investigation  to  be  followed  by  com 
plete  publicity,  and  by  punishment  if  punishment  were 
deserved.  The  Democrats  made  all  the  capital  they  could 
out  of  the  canal  matter,  and  tried  to  brand  Roosevelt  as 
a  mere  tool  of  Senator  Platt. 

The  Citizens'  Union  Party,  although  they  had  them 
selves  selected  Roosevelt  in  the  first  instance,  with  the 
hope  that  they  could  compel  the  Republican  organization 
to  support  him,  turned  upon  him  when  he  secured  Repub 
lican  support  on  his  own  account  and  accused  him  of 
being  controlled  by  the  machine.  Later  the  Colonel 
quoted  with  satisfaction  a  letter  which  he  received  from 
John  Hay  after  the  election,  in  which  Hay  said: 

"You  have  already  shown  that  a  man  may  be  abso 
lutely  honest  and  yet  practical;  a  reformer  by  instinct 
and  a  wise  politician;  brave,  bold  and  uncompromising, 
and  yet  not  a  wild  ass  of  the  desert.  The  exhibition 
made  by  the  professional  independents  in  voting  against 
you,  for  no  reason  on  earth  except  that  somebody  else 
was  voting  for  you,  is  a  lesson  that  is  worth  its  cost." 

Richard  Croker  was  at  this  time  the  leader  of  Tam 
many  Hall,  and  had  Van  Wyck  been  elected  would  have 
held  the  whole  state  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Roosevelt 
determined  to  make  this  fact  clear  to  the  voters  by  making 
the  campaign  so  far  as  possible  a  personal  issue  between 
himself  and  Croker.  Shortly  before  election  time  his 


152  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

opportunity  came.  For  his  own  reasons  Croker  insisted 
that  the  Democrats  should  reject  an  excellent  judge  of 
their  own  party  who  was  a  candidate  for  re-election. 
Roosevelt  promptly  attacked  this  action  and  Croker 
came  to  the  front  as  a  campaign  speaker.  Thus  the  public 
came  to  feel  that  the  contest  was  personal,  that  the  two 
principals  represented  not  only  two  different  political 
parties  but  different  political  standards  of  right  and  wrong. 

"Roosevelt,"  said  Senator  Platt,  "made  a  dramatic 
campaign.  He  fairly  pranced  about  the  state.  He  called 
a  spade  ca  spade;'  a  crook  'a  crook.'  During  the  final 
week  of  the  canvass  he  made  the  issue  Richard  Croker5 
the  Tammany  boss,  who  had  been  so  excoriated  by  the 
Lexow  and  Mazet  committees.  The  Rough  Rider 
romped  home  on  election  day  with  over  17/000  plurality." 
Out  of  a  total  of  1,350,000  votes  cast  thfc'was  not  a  wide 
margin,  but  the  Republicans  were  well  satisfied  with  their 
success. 

In  permitting  his  name  to  be  brought  before  the  State 
Convention,  and  in  accepting  the  nomination  and  support 
which  ensued,  Roosevelt  followed  a  political  principle 
which  guided  him  all  his  life.  He  realized  that  little 
could  be  accomplished  toward  political  or  social  improve 
ment  without  organized  effort,  and  that  in  an  organiza 
tion  it  was  necessary  to  sink  minor  differences  and  to 
agree  upon  a  common  program  which  all  might  unite  to 
further.  He  was  a  Republican  by  inheritance  and  by 
association,  and  having  cast  in  his  lot  with  that  party  he 
felt  it  his  duty  to  stay  within  the  party  fold  and  to  main 
tain  the  party  organization,  except  when  distinct  ques 
tions  of  right  and  wrong  made  this  impossible.  Before 
his  election  as  Governor  he  had  promised  that  he  would 
consult  Senator  Platt  and  the  other  recognized  party 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  153 

leaders  on  all  matters  of  appointments  and  legislation, 
but  he  had  served  notice  that  his  final  conclusions  would 
be  his  own  and  not  theirs.  "He  religiously  fulfilled  this 
pledge,"  said  Platt,  "although  he  frequently  did  just  what 
he  pleased." 

Shortly  after  the  election,  and  before  the  Colonel  took 
office,  Platt  sent  for  him  to  talk  over  what  was  to  be  done 
at  Albany.  Platt  was  old  and  rather  feeble,  and  it  was 
Roosevelt's  custom,  in  spite  of  severe  criticism,  to  go  to 
Platt  when  he  wanted  a  conference  instead  of  standing 
upon  his  dignity  and  insisting  that  Platt  should  come  to 
him.  Upon  this  occasion  he  found  the  Senator  with  two 
or  three  of  his  lieutenants,  discussing  the  constitution  of 
the  committees  in  the  coming  Legislature.  The  Senator 
asked  the  Colonel  whether  he  had  any  member  of  the 
Assembly  whom  he  wished  to  have  put  on  any  committee. 
The  Colonel  said  no  and  expressed  some  surprise  at  the 
question  because  the  Legislature  had  not  yet  met  to  choose 
the  Speaker  by  whom  all  committees  wTould  be  appointed. 

"Oh,"  answered  the  Senator,  "he  has  not  been  chosen 
yet,  but,  of  course,  whoever  we  choose  as  Speaker  will 
agree  beforehand  to  make  the  appointments  we  wish." 

Roosevelt  said  nothing  but  made  up  his  mind  that  if 
an  attempt  were  made  to  put  the  Governor  in  the  same 
category  with  the  Speaker,  there  would  be  trouble. 

A  few  days  later  Platt  sent  for  him  again  to  discuss 
the  choice  of  a  Superintendent  of  Public  Works.  The 
Superintendent  of  Public  Works  controlled  the  construc 
tion  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  position  was  doubly 
important  because  of  the  popular  suspicion  of  the  canal 
management  during  Black's  administration.  When  Roose 
velt  arrived  the  Senator  informed  him  that  he,  the  Senator, 
had  offered  the  Superintendent's  position  to  a  first-class 


154  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

man  from  whom  he  had  just  received  a  telegraph  of 
acceptance.  The  Colonel  had  no  personal  objection  to  the 
gentleman  suggested,  but  the  fact  that  he  lived  in  a  city 
along  the  line  of  the  canal  was  against  him,  and  what  was 
more  important,  the  Governor-elect  realized  that  the 
time  had  come  to  show  his  independence.  Accordingly 
he  politely  told  the  Senator  that  his  man  would  not  fit 
the  job.  The  result  was  an  outburst  on  the  part  of  the 
old  chief  who  had  controlled  every  appointment  in  the 
party  fold  for  years  and  was  not  minded  to  see  his  power 
taken  from  him.  But  Roosevelt  was  firm,  and  in  the  end 
Platt  was  obliged  to  give  in.  It  was  thus  made  plain  at 
the  outset  that  since  the  people  had  entrusted  their  wel 
fare  to  Roosevelt,  he  would  make  their  welfare  his  per 
sonal  business,  and  that  he  and  no  other  would  exercise 
the  functions  of  the  state's  Governor. 

One  of  his  first  acts  as  Governor  was  to  nominate  for 
the  position  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Works  John  N. 
Partridge,  an  engineer  who  had  acted  as  chief  of  police 
when  Seth  Low  was  mayor  of  Brooklyn.  Partridge 
discharged  his  duties  in  admirable  fashion  and  with 
entire  satisfaction.  A  very  D.  Andrews,  who  had  been 
one  of  the  Colonel's  fellow  Police  Commisioners  in  New 
York  City,  was  appointed  Adjutant  General. 

Whenever  the  Governor  wanted  to  discuss  an  appoint 
ment  or  a  question  of  legislation  with  Senator  Platt  he 
was  accustomed  to  breakfast  with  the  Senator  at  his 
hotel  in  New  York.  This  gave  rise  to  much  criticism  by 
supersensitive  citizens  who  felt  that  the  Colonel  was 
obediently  coming  down  from  Albany  to  take  orders  from 
his  superior  officer.  Such,  however,  was /not  the  fact,  for 
a  series  of  breakfasts  was  usually  a  prelude  to  more  or 
less  open  warfare  between  the  twa^tnen.  Roosevelt 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  155 

avoided  hostilities  whenever  possible  and  compromised 
when  he  could  do  so  without  surrendering  his  principles, 
but  there  were  occasions  when  no  compromise  was  possi 
ble  and  when  it  seemed  as  if  an  irreparable  breach  must 
certainly  occur. 

Toward  the  end  of  1899  the  Governor  became  con 
vinced  that  Louis  F.  Payn,  the  State  Superintendent  of 
Insurance,  would  have  to  go.  Payn  had  been  engaged  in 
large  business  operations  in  New  York  City,  which  were 
not  suitable  for  a  man  in  his  position.  His  term  of  office 
was  about  to  expire  and  he  confidently  expected  a  re-ap 
pointment.  Platt  stood  back  of  him  and  served  notice 
that  he  would  have  to  be  re-appointed  and  that  the  State 
Senate  would  not  be  permitted  to  approve  any  other 
nomination.  Roosevelt  went  to  Platt  and  told  him 
flatly  that  Payn  could  not  retain  his  job.  Platt  pointed 
out  that  the  man  would  stay  in  anyhow,  because  he 
would  necessarily  hold  over  until  his  successor  was 
appointed  and  it  would  be  impossible  either  to  discharge 
him  or  to  name  a  successor  without  the  approval  of  the 
Senate.  "All  right,"  said  the  Governor,  "I  will  wait 
until  the  Senate  adjourns,  then  I  will  discharge  him  and 
appoint  another  man  in  his  place,  and  if  the  Senate  puts 
Payn  back  when  they  convene  again,  I  will  remove  him 
again  just  as  soon  as  the  Senate  adjourns."  There  was 
apparently  no  possibility  that  the  Senator  and  the  Gov 
ernor  could  agree. 

Meanwhile,  the  big  life  insurance  companies  began 
to  bring  pressure  to  bear  on  the  Governor  to  re-appoint 
Payn.  Platt  showed  not  the  least  sign  of  yielding  and 
there  seemed  no  way  out  of  the  impasse.  Roosevelt 
suggested  to  the  Senator  that  Francis  Hendricks  should 
take  Payn's  place.  Hendricks  had  been  Collector  of 


156  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  Port  of  New  York  under  President  Harrison  and 
was  a  good  party  man  with  a  clean  record.  Platt  himself 
had  suggested  Hendricks  for  the  position  of  Superin 
tendent  of  Public  Works  and  Roosevelt  did  not  see  how 
he  could  refuse  to  agree  to  his  appointment  as  Superin 
tendent  of  Insurance.  Platt,  however,  remained  obdurate. 
At  last  a  final  meeting  was  arranged  at  the  Union  League 
Club  between  the  Governor  and  one  of  Platt 's  lieutenants. 
The  Senator's  ambassador  went  over  the  old  ground  and 
explained  that  Platt  would  fight  to  the  finish,  that  he 
was  certain  to  win  and  that  the  Governor's  political 
future  would  inevitably  be  destroyed.  The  Governor 
merely  repeated  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  and  would 
not  change.  Again  he  was  warned  that  this  was  his  last 
chance  and  that  ruin  awaited  him  if  he  refused  it.  The 
rest  of  the  story  is  best  told  in  Roosevelt's  own  words. 
"I  shook  my  head  and  answered,  *  There  is  nothing 
to  add  to  what  I  have  already  said.'  He  responded, 
'You  have  made  up  your  mind?'  and  I  said,  'I  have.' 
He  then  said,  'You  know  it  means  your  ruin?'  and  I 
answered,  'Well,  we  will  see  about  that,'  and  walked 
toward  the  door.  He  said,  'You  understand,  the  fight 
will  begin  tomorrow  and  will  be  carried  on  to  the  bitter 
end.'  I  said,  'Yes,'  and  added,  as  I  reached  the  door, 
'Good  night.'  Then,  as  the  door  opened,  my  opponent, 
or  visitor,  whichever  one  chooses  to  call  him,  whose  face 
was  as  impassive  and  as  inscrutable  as  that  of  Mr.  John 
Hamlin  in  a  poker  game,  said:  'Hold  on!  We  accept. 
Send  in  So-and-so  (the  man  I  had  named).  The  Senator 
is  very  sorry,  but  he  will  make  no  further  opposition.' 
I  never  saw  a  bluff  carried  more  resolutely  through  to  the 
final  limit.  My  success  in  the  affair,  coupled  with  the 
appointment  of  Messrs.  Partridge  and  Hooker,  secured 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  157 

me  against  further  effort  to  interfere  with  my  handling 
of  the  executive  departments." 

During  his  campaign  the  Governor  had  promised 
that  a  full  and  fair  investigation  would  be  made  of  the 
canal  situation.  This  promise  he  fulfilled  by  selecting 
two  well-known  Democratic  lawyers  to  whom  the  inves 
tigation  was  unreservedly  entrusted.  These  men  spent 
several  months  in  the  task  assigned  to  them  and  finally 
reported  that  although  there  had  been  gross  delinquency 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  work,  there  was  no  ground  for 
criminal  prosecution.  In  transmitting  this  report  to 
the  Legislature  the  Governor  said,  "There  is  probably 
no  lawyer  of  high  standing  in  the  state  who,  after  study 
ing  the  report  of  counsel  in  this  case  and  the  testimony 
taken  by  the  investigating  commission,  would  disagree 
with  them  as  to  the  impracticability  of  a  successful 
prosecution.  Under  such  circumstances  the  one  remedy 
was  a  thorough  change  in  the  methods  and  management. 
This  change  has  been  made." 

He  also  appointed  a  non-partisan  commission  of 
business  men  and  expert  engineers,  who  were  charged 
with  the  duty  of  investigating  the  whole  canal  question 
and  of  reporting  what  steps  the  state  should  take  in 
order  to  establish  a  proper  canal  system.  This  com 
mission  was  headed  by  General  Francis  V.  Greene,  to 
whom  Roosevelt  had  in  the  first  instance  offered  the 
position  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Works. 

In  January  of  1900  the  Governor  sent  to  the  Legis 
lature  the  report  of  the  special  commission,  in  which  it 
was  recommended  that  sixty  million  dollars  should  be 
expended  on  a  barge  canal,  to  run  from  Buffalo  to  Albany. 
The  expenditure  of  this  vast  sum  of  money  naturally 
caused  the  Legislature  to  hesitate.  Accordingly  toward 


Ah 

r  U 


158  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  end  of  the  session  of  1900  the  Governor  sent  an 
emergency  message  urging  the  passage  of  a  bill  to  pro 
vide  for  a  complete  and  final  survey  of  the  canal  situa 
tion.  This  bill  was  passed  on  the  last  day  of  the  session. 
The  original  report  of  General  Greene's  commission  now 
forms  the  basis  of  the  canal  system  of  the  State  of 
New  York. 

During  the  first  year  of  his  term  the  Governor  had 
e  satisfaction  of  procuring  the  passage  of  certain 
legislation  which  he  earnestly  advocated.  In  his  first 
message  he  had  asked  for  a  civil  service  law  to  take 
the  place  of  the  one  which  had  recently  been  unwisely 
repealed,  and  he  had  asked  for  an  enlargement  of  the 
sphere  of  activity  of  factory  inspectors,  and  for  provisions 
looking  toward  a  stricter  enforcement  of  the  labor  laws. 
All  of  these  recommendations  were  embodied  in  the  stat 
ute  law  during  the  year.  The  White  Civil  Service  Act 
was  passed  by  the  Legislature  on  April  18th,  and  another 
bill  was  enacted  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  for  women 
and  minors. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  action  of  Roosevelt 
as  Governor  was  his  insistence  upon  the  passage  of  the 
Ford  Franchise  Bill.  John  Ford,  a  member  of  the  State 
Senate  from  New  York  City,  had  become  convinced 
that  the  large  public  service  corporations  should  pay 
taxes  upon  the  perpetual  franchises  which  they  enjoyed. 
Taxation,  especially  in  New  York  City,  was  rapidly 
becoming  more  and  more  burdensome  and  there  appeared 
to  be  no  sufficient  reason  for  exempting  valuable  cor 
porate  franchises  from  paying  their  share  of  the  public 
expenses.  The  matter  was  carried  to  the  Governor,  who 
convinced  himself  that  Ford's  suggestion  was  proper. 
But  Senator  Platt  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  proposi- 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  159 

tion.  He  wrote  the  Governor  a  letter  of  protest,  in  which 
he  accused  him  of  entertaining  "various  altruistic  ideas 
— all  very  well  in  their  way — but  which,  before  they 
could  safely  be  put  into  law,  needed  very  profound  con 
sideration." 

What  was  more  to  the  point,  the  Senator's  control 
of  the  Legislature  was  such  that  the  bill  died  in  com 
mittee.  The  Governor  talked  the  matter  over  with  a 
good  many  of  the  legislators  and  reached  the  conclusion 
that  it  w^ould  be  impossible  to  succeed  against  the  com 
bined  efforts  of  the  corporation  lobby  and  the  party 
machine,  without  an  aroused  popular  sentiment.  Accord 
ingly,  just  before  the  end  of  the  session,  he  sent  the 
Legislature  a  special  message  declaring  the  business 
urgent,  and  asking  them  to  pass  the  bill  immediately. 
This  message  was  judiciously  "lost"  before  it  reached 
the  Assembly,  but  by  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning 
the  Governor  learned  what  had  happened,  and  by  eight 
o'clock  he  was  in  the  Capitol.  From  the  executive 
chamber  he  sent  in  another  special  message  by  his  own 
secretary,  with  the  intimation  that  if  it  were  not  promptly 
read  he  would  come  up  in  person  and  read  it.  Matters 
had  been  brought  to  such  a  pass  that  the  Assemblymen 
realized  that  any  further  effort  to  defeat  the  bill  might 
result  in  their  own  defeat  at  the  next  election,  and  they 
accordingly  put  it  through  with  a  rush. 

But  this  did  not  end  the  trouble.  The  bill  had  two 
obnoxious  features  which  the  Governor  was  determined 
to  remedy  immediately.  He  believed  that  the  value  of 
franchises  should  be  assessed  by  a  State  Board  instead 
of  by  local  authorities,  and  that  provision  should  be 
made  for  crediting  the  corporations  with  any  tax  which 
they  already  paid  under  existing  laws.  The  corporations 


160  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

affected  and  the  party  leaders  of  both  organizations 
urged  the  Governor  not  to  sign  the  Ford  Bill  but  to  let 
the  matter  go  over  for  another  session  and  then  to  have 
it  put  in  proper  shape.  But  Roosevelt  was  determined 
not  to  let  his  opportunity  pass  by.  He  answered  that 
he  would  call  a  special  session  of  the  Legislature  for  the 
purpose  of  passing  an  amended  statute,  but  that  if  the 
Legislature  failed  to  follow  his  recommendation,  he 
would  sign  the  bill  in  its  present  form.  The  Legislature 
was  accordingly  summoned  to  meet  on  May  22d.  They 
passed  an  amended  bill  on  May  25th  and  the  Governor 
signed  it  on  May  26th.  A  very  considerable  political 
victory  had  been  won,  and  approximately  two  hundred 
million  dollars'  worth  of  franchises  had  been  added  to 
the  taxable  property  of  the  state. 

In  November,  1899,  a  Republican  Legislature  was 
again  elected,  and  the  Governor  was  able  during  the 
session  of  1900  to  procure  the  passage  of  several  important 
pieces  of  legislation.  He  was  authorized  by  the  Legis 
lature  to  appoint  a  commission  to  investigate  tenement 
house  conditions  in  New  York  City,  and  to  suggest 
appropriate  remedial  legislation.  He  was  also  authorized 
to  appoint  a  commission  to  study  the  question  of  revising 
the  charter  of  the  City  of  New  York.  His  own  experience 
as  Police  Commissioner  gave  him  particular  interest  in 
this  matter.  Under  his  urgent  pressure,  a  state  hospital 
was  created  for  incipient  tuberculosis.  The  policy  of 
protecting  the  state  forests  received  his  especial  atten 
tion  and  he  attributed  his  success  in  this  matter  largely 
to  a  conference  held  in  the  executive  chamber  with 
forty  of  the  best  guides  and  woodsmen  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks.  The  Board  of  Commissioners  of  the  Palisades 
Interstate  Park  was  formed  to  co-operate  with  New 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  161 

Jersey  in  the  preservation  of  the  beautiful  cliffs  which 
border  the  Hudson. 

When  Roosevelt  lived  in  Washington  as  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  one  of  his  intimate  friends  was  the  German 
Attache,  Baron  Speck  von  Sternberg,  \vho  afterwards 
became  German  Ambassador  at  Washington  when  Roose 
velt  was  President.  The  Baron  always  prophesied  that 
his  friend  would  become  President.  When  Roosevelt 
was  appointed  Police  Commissioner  he  wrote  him,  con 
gratulating  him  on  his  appointment,  adding:  "When  I 
again  congratulate  you,  you  will  be  one  step  nearer  the 
WTiite  House."  When  Roosevelt  became  Assistant  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy,  Sternberg  wrote  from  Pekin,  where 
he  was  stationed:  "Permit  me  to  congratulate  you  on 
this  second  step  nearer  the  Presidency."  WTien  Roosevelt 
was  elected  Governor  of  New  York,  the  Baron  tele 
graphed:  "The  next  time  I  offer  congratulations  it  will 
be  to  President  Roosevelt." 

Roosevelt  could  have  had  no  better  preparation,  both 
politically  and  practically,  for  the  Presidency  than  his 
experience  in  Albany  as  Governor  of  the  greatest  state 
of  the  Union.  As  we  have  seen,  he  accomplished  good 
for  the  state.  His  administration  was  more  than  credit 
able;  but  its  chief  value  both  to  him  personally  and  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  was  the  education  which 
the  experience  gave  him  for  the  vastly  greater  executive 
duties  which  he  was  so  soon  to  assume.  / 

William  Roscoe  Thayer,  in  his  "Life  of  John  Hay," 
prints  a  letter  from  Roosevelt  to  Hay,  who  was  then 
Secretary  of  State,  in  which  Roosevelt  gives  a  character 
istically  just  estimate  of  his  own  work  as  Governor.  The 
letter  was  written  on  February  7,  1899. 

"  Compared  with  the  great  game  of  which  Washington 
11 


162  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

is  the  center,  my  own  work  here^is  parochial,  but  it  is 
interesting  too;  and  so  far  I  seem  to  have  been  fairly 
successful  in  overcoming  the  centrifugal  forces  always  so 
strong  in  the  Republican  party.  I  am  getting  on  well 
with  Senator  Platt,  and  I  am  apparently  satisfying  the 
wishes  of  the  best  element  in  our  own  party;  of  course  I 
have  only  begun,  but  so  far  I  think  the  state  is  better 
and  the  party  stronger  from  my  administration." 


CHAPTER  XI 

FROM  G*VERN«R  TS  PRESIDENT 

GARRETT  A.  HOB A^T, j 'Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  died  on  December  21, 1899.  Specu 
lation  was  rife  as  to  who  the  Republicans  would 
nominate  as  Vice-President  in  the  Presidential  campaign 
of  1900.  Had  Mr.  Hobart  lived,  he  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  renominated,  but  his  death  made  necessary 
the  choice  of  another  running  mate  for  McKinley. 
Many  names  were  suggested,  especially  those  of  John 
D.  Long,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  Representative 
Dolliver,  of  Iowa,  but  it  soon  appeared  that  the  man  who 
could  win  the  greatest  possible  support,  especially  in 
the  West,  was  Theodore  Roosevelt.  He  did  not  wish  the 
nomination.  He  hajd  ntot  completed  the  work  he  wanted 
to  do  as  Governor  of  New  York,  and  was  anxious  to  be 
re-elected.  In  February,  1900,  he  stated  publicly  that 
he  would  not  accept  the  nomination  of  Vice-President 
if  it  w^ere  offered  to  him,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  he 
was  honest  in  expressing  this  determination. 

Mark  Hanna  was  the  leader  of  the  Republican 
organization.  He  did  not  want  Roosevelt;  he  wanted 
the  Republicans  to  nominate  a  business  ticket.  At  the 
same  time,  a  successor  to  Roosevelt  as  Governor  of 
New  York  had  also  to  be  elected.  Senator  Platt  had 
probably  promised  the  nomination  to  Benjamin  B. 
Odell.  Whether  this  is  true  or  not,  he  wanted  to  get 
Roosevelt  out  of  New  York  and  to  "bury  him"  in  the 
Vice-Presidency.  A  meeting  was  held  of  the  New  York 

(163) 


164  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

delegation  to  the  Republican  National  Convention. 
The  great  majority  were  under  the  control  of  the  Senator. 
Roosevelt  tells  us  that  the  Senator  notified  him  that  he 
would  be  beaten  for  the  nomination  for  Governor,  if  he 
refused  to  accept  the  nomination  for  Vice-President. 
Roosevelt  told  him  that  he  accepted  the  challenge; 
that  he  would  have  a  straight-out  fight  and  that  he 
would  begin  at  once  by  telling  the  delegates  of  the  threat 
and  giving  them  fair  warning  that  he  intended  to  fight 
for  the  governorship.  This  threat  apparently  brought 
Platt  to  terms,  and  the  New  York  delegation  ostensibly 
went  to  the  convention  pledged  to  support  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Woodruff  for  the  vice-presidential  nomination. 

As  the  convention  approached,  the  movement  for 
Roosevelt's  nomination  among  delegates  from  the  Western 
states  became  stronger  and;  stronger.  Apparently  the 
whole  country  wanted  him  £xo6pt  official  Washington. 
The  attitude  of  the  older  menjri  Washington  is  set  forth 
in  a  letter  which  John  Hay  wrote  to  Mr,  Henry  White 
at  the  Embassy  at  London.  The  letter,  which  is  printed 
in  Thayer's  "Life  of  Hay,"  was  written  on  June  15th, 
only  four  days  before  the  meeting: 

"Teddy  has  been  here;  have  you  heard  of  it?  It 
was  more  fun  than  a  goat.  He  came  down  with  a  somber 
resolution  thrown  on  his  strenuous  brow  to  let  McKinley 
and  Hanna  know  once  for  all  that  he  wrould  not  be  Vice- 
President,  and  found  to  his  stupefaction  that  nobody  in 
Washington  except  Platt  had  ever  dreamed  of  such  a 
thing.  He  did  not  even  have  the  chance  to  launch  his 
nolo  episcopari  at  the  Major.  That  statesman  said  he 
did  not  want  him- on  the  ticket — that  he  would  be  far 
more  valuable  in  Ne.w  York — and  Root  said,  with  his 
frank  and  murderous  smile,  'Of  course  not — you're  not 


tg)  Pack  Brothers. 

THE  ROOSEVELT  FAMILY  IN   1903 

From  left  to  right:  Quentin,  the  President,  Theodore,  Jr.,  Archie,  Alice, 
Kermit,  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  Ethel. 


Photo  by  International  Film  Service. 

NOMINATED   FOR  THE  VICE-PRESIDENCY 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  fight  for  clean  politics,  while  Governor  of  New  York, 
so  embarrassed  the  politicians  that  they  forced  upon  him  the  nomination  for  Vice- 
President.  He  is  seen  here  at  Sagamore  Hill  with  the  committee  that  notified  him 
of  his  nomination  in  1899. 


FROM  GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT       165 

fit  for  it.'    And  so. he  went  back  quite  eased  in  his  mind, 
but  considerably  bruised  in  his  amour  propre." 

The  letter  probably  reflected  accurately  the  official 
attitude  in  higher  government  circles,  however  Hay 
may  have  misjudged,  as  other  older  men  sometimes 
misjudge,  what  affects  a  younger  man's  self-esteem. 

Washington,  however,  is  not  the  country.  When  the 
Republican  National  Convention  met,  Roosevelt  attended 
as  a  delegate  at  large  from  the  State  of  New  York.  There 
are  many  and  conflicting  stories  of  w^hat  actually  took 
place.  Senator  Platt,  in  his  Autobiography,  tells  us  that 
he  sent  for  Roosevelt  and  told  him  that  Odell  was  going 
to  be  the  next  Governor  of  New  York  and  that  Roosevelt 
was  at  first  determined  to  fight,  and  go  before  the  State 
Convention  if  necessary,  without  Platt's  support,  but 
that,  before  leaving  the  room,  he  had  practically  indicated 
that  he  would  accept  the  nomination  for  Vice-President. 

In  spite  of  different  tales,  it  is  not  hard  to  see  what 
actually  took  place.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
delegates  wanted  Roosevelt  and  did  not  want  any  one 
else.  Had  Hanna,  w^ith  all  his  popularity  and  power 
over  the  convention,  stated  publicly  that  McKinley 
did  not  wish  Roosevelt  nominated,  while  the  delegates 
might  have  acquiesced,  all  enthusiasm  and  snap  would 
have  been  taken  out  of  the  subsequent  campaign.  It  is 
certain  that  Hanna,  and  probable  that  McKinley,  would 
have  preferred  another  nominee,  but  they  both  wisely 
bowed  to  popular  demand.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
equally  certain  that  Roosevelt  did  not  wish  the  nomina 
tion,  and  that  he  was  finally  induced  to  accept  by  the 
combined  force  of  two  wholly  different  considerations. 
He  knew  Platt's  strength  and  the  desperate  fight  he 
would  probably  make  to  prevent  his,  Roosevelt's,  re-nomi- 


166  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

nation  as  Governor.  If  he  went  ihrough  the  fight  and 
won,  well;  but  if  he  went  through  the  fight  and  lost, 
nothing  for  himself  or  for  the  cause  of  good  government 
in  his  native  state  would  have  been  gained.  Again, 
Roosevelt  was  not  the  man  to  be  unmoved  by  the  evident 
desire  of  the  mass  of  the  delegates  for  his  nomination. 
He  was  a  party  man,  and  a  good  politician,  and  he 
probably  appreciated  that  the  man  who  refuses  a  nomi 
nation  which  the  overwhelming  majority  of  his  party 
enthusiastically  wish  him  to  take,  is  thereafter  dead 
politically.  Besides  all  this,  as  a  party  man,  he  probably 
felt  the  obligation  arising  from  the  unanimity  of  the  call. 

On  the  day  for  nominations,  the  Governor  of  New 
York  made  a  speech  seconding  McKinley's  renomination 
for  the  Presidency.  His  speech  was  in  effect  his  own 
nomination.  The  members  of  the  convention  hailed 
him  as  Vice-President,  and  the  entire  hall  rang  with 
cries  for  "Teddy."  By  the  time  nominations  for  Vice- 
President  were  in  order,  the  convention  was  in  an  uproar, 
and  when  Young,  of  Ohio,  who  was  to  have  presented 
Representative  Dolliver's  name  for  that  office,  formally 
presented  the  name  of  Roosevelt,  the  entire  convention 
stampeded  to  him,  demanding  an  immediate  vote,  so 
eager  were  they  to  ratify  the  will  of  the  party  and  make 
the  ticket  McKinley  and  Roosevelt. 
/^Roosevelt  threw  himself  into  the  Presidential  cam 
paign  that  followed  as  if  he  had  desired  the  nomination, 
rather  than  fought  against  it.  He  visited  twenty -four 
states  and  traveled  twenty -one  thousand  miles,  making 
nearly  seven  hundred  speeches,  a  record  which  prob 
ably  at  that  time  had  never  been  equaled. 

When  he  went  through  the  pro-silver  Rocky  Mountain 
states,  the  monotony  of  approval  usually  attendant  upon 


FROM  GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT       167 

a  campaign  of  political  speaking  was  diversified  by  the 
necessity  of  facing  hostile  audiences.  On  September  25th, 
he  made  an  address  in  a  small  hall  at  Victor,  Colorado, 
a  little  mining  town  not  far  from  Cripple  Creek.  Nearly 
all  the  members  of  the  crowd  were  miners,  and  mostly 
Free  Silver  men  and  Bryanites.  He  began  his  address 
with  an  attack  upon  the  New  York  Tammany  politicians 
who,  as  stockholders  of  the  Ice  Trust,  had  profited  during 
the  previous  summer  from  the  distress  of  the  poor  people 
of  the  city.  "In  my  state,"  he  said,  "the  men  who  were 
put  on  the  Committee  on  Platform  to  draw  up  an  Anti- 
Trust  plank  at  the  Democratic  National  Convention 
at  Kansas  City  had  their  pockets  stuffed  with  Ice  Trust 
stock."  At  this  point  a  voice  in  the  audience  shouted, 
"What  about  the  rotten  beef?"  "I  ate  it,"  responded 
Roosevelt  instantly,  "and  you  will  never  get  near  enough 
to  be  hit  with  a  bullet,  or  within  five  miles  of  it."  After 
this,  he  concluded  his  speech  with  some  difficulty  and 
left  the  hall  under  the  escort  of  some  of  his  own  Rough 
Riders.  On  the  way  to  the  train  he  and  his  party,  who 
were  on  foot,  were  attacked  by  a  crowd  of  roughs,  one 
of  whom  struck  him  in  the  chest  with  a  stick.  Finally, 
however,  thanks  to  the  protection  of  the  Rough  Riders, 
the  party  reached  the  station  in  safety  and  Roosevelt 
was  none  the  worse  for  his  experience;  indeed,  the  occur 
rence,  which  was  made  much  of  at  the  time,  increased 
his  popularity. 

Another  town  where  trouble  was  expected  fortunately 
contained  an  "old  and  valued  friend,  a  'two  gun'  man  of 
repute,"  whose  Christian  name  was  Seth.  Seth  was  not 
in  the  least  quarrelsome,  but  he  always  kept  his  word. 
While  Roosevelt  spoke,  his  friend  sat  immediately 
behind  him  on  the  platform.  The  audience  listened  to 


168  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  speech  with  rapt  attention.  ^At  the  end,  Roosevelt 
expressed  to  the  chairman  some  satisfaction  at  the  fact 
that  the  audience  had  been  attentive  and  that  he  had 
not  been  subjected  to  a  single  interruption.  "Inter 
ruption,"  replied  the  chairman,  "well  I  guess  not! 
Seth  had  sent  around  word  that  if  any  son  of  a  gun 
peeped  he  would  kill  him." 

In  this  campaign,  as  in  all  others  made  by  their 
Colonel,  men  of  the  Rough  Riders  were  his  enthusiastic 
supporters.  Buck  Taylor,  of  Texas,  for  a  time  accom 
panied  him,  and  made  a  speech  which  took  both  with  the 
Colonel  and  the  audience.  The  peroration  concluded 
as  follows:  "My  fellow  citizens,  vote  for  my  Colonel! 
Vote  for  my  Colonel! — and  he  will  lead  you,  as  he  led 
us,  like  sheep  to  the  slaughter."  The  Colonel  adds  that 
while  this  did  not  seem  to  be  very  complimentary  to  his 
powers  as  a  military  leader,  it  delighted  the  crowd. 

In  the  election  the  Republicans  swept  the  country, 
McKinley  and  Roosevelt  receiving  292  electoral  votes 
while  Bryan  and  Steyenson  received  155.  The  Republi 
cans  had  a  plurality  0f  about  785,000,  and,  apart  from 
the  South,  they  carried  every  state  except  Colorado, 
Arkansas,  Idaho,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Montana  and 
Nevada. 

Roosevelt's  term  as  Governor  of  New  York  came  to 
an  end  on  New  Year's  Day,  1901.  He  went  on  a  short 
hunting  trip  to  Colorado,  and  on  March  4th  was  sworn 
in  as  Vice-President,  presiding  over  the  Executive 
Session  of  the  Senate  which  was  held  immediately  after 
his  inauguration. 

As  John  Hay  wrote  to  him,  shortly  after  his  inaugura 
tion,  the  office  was  not  precisely  what  his  friends  desired 
for  him.  At  the  same  time  had  he  remained  Vice-Presi- 


FROM   GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT       169 

dent,  nothing  could  have  kept  him  from  doing  good  work 
or  "from  getting  lots  of  fun  out  of  it."  He  was  not, 
however,  to  have  the  opportunity  to  make  something 
out  of  the  most  useless  and  the  dullest  office  which  it  has 
ever  been  given  to  the  wit  of  man  to  devise.  His  time 
between  March  and  September  was  partly  taken  up  in 
making  speeches  and  it  was  on  one  of  these  speaking 
tours  that  the  news  of  the  great  tragedy  at  Buffalo  came 
to  him. 

On  September  6th,  McKinley  was  shot  by  the  assas 
sin  Leon  Czolgosz.  The  Vice-President  was  at  Isle 
La  Motte,  near  Burlington,  Vermont.  He  had  just  fin 
ished  an  address  when  he  was  informed  of  the  tragedy. 
He  went  at  once  to  Buffalo.  The  President  had  not 
been  instantly  killed.  At  dawn  on  the  7th  he  was  still 
alive.  All  day  he  seemed  to  improve.  The  waiting 
nation  began  to  breathe  again.  After  two  days,  the 
attendant  physicians  informed  Roosevelt  that  the  Presi 
dent  was  practically  out  of  danger.  Roosevelt  then  left 
Buffalo  and  joined  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  the  children, 
who  were  at  the  Tehawus  Club  House,  in  the  wilds  of 
the  Adirondacks.  Until  the  seventh  day  after  the 
shooting,  the  President  continued  to  improve — at  least 
that  was  the  tenure  of  the  official  bulletins  issued  by  his 
physicians.  It  was  therefore  a  shock  to  the  nation  when, 
on  the  seventh  day,  Friday,  it  was  announced  that  the 
President  was  much  worse  and  could  not  be  expected  to 
recover.  Every  effort  was  made  to  reach  the  Vice- 
President,  but  the  Tehawus  Club  House,  which  is  at  the 
foot  of  Mt.  Marcy,  or  Tehawus,  was  thirty-five  miles 
from  the  nearest  railroad  and  telegraph  station  at 
North  Creek.  When  the  telegram  from  the  President's 
secretary,  Cortelyou,  reached  the  club,  Roosevelt  was 


170  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

off  on  a  long  tramp  and  there  was  no  absolute  certainty 
where  he  had  gone  or  exactly  when  he  would  return. 
Several  guides  were  dispatched  in  different  directions  to 
find  him.  Roosevelt  has  himself  described  his  meeting 
with  the  guide: 

"We  took  a  long  tramp  through  the  forest,  and  in  the 
afternoon  I  climbed  Mt.  Tehawus.  After  reaching  the 
top,  I  descended  a  few  hundred  feet  to  a  shelf  of  land 
where  there  was  a  little  lake,  when  I  saw  a  guide  coming 
out  of  the  woods  on  our  trail,  from  below.  I  felt  at  once 
that  he  had  bad  news,  and  sure  enough,  he  handed  me 
a  telegram  saying  that  the  President's  condition  was 
much  worse  and  that  I  must  come  to  Buffalo  imme 
diately." 

The  lake  was  some  ten  miles  from  the  club  house, 
which  was  not  reached  until  after  dark.  There  was 
considerable  delay  in  obtaining  a  wagon,  but  finally  it 
was  obtained  and  throughout  the  night  Roosevelt,  alone 
with  the  driver,  covered  the  thirty-five  miles  to  North 
Creek.  The  road  was  a  wilderness  road,  at  first  a  mere 
trail,  running  on  the  edge  of  bluffs  overhanging  a  chain 
of  small  lakes  surrounded  by  mountains.  The  night  was 
very  dark  and  foggy.  It  was  almost  impossible  for  the 
driver  to  see  the  way,  but  it  is  recorded  that  his  solitary 
passenger  urged  him  continually  to  "Go  on;  go  right 
ahead."  During  the  night  they  changed  horses  several 
times.  Dawn  was  breaking  as  he  stepped  on  to  the 
station  platform  at  North  Creek,  to  find  his  secretary, 
Mr.  Loeb,  waiting  with  a  special  train,  and  to  learn 
that  the  President  who  was  beloved  of  all  the  nation 
had  died  during  the  night. 

Roosevelt  at  once  boarded  the  special  train  and  by 
seven  o'clock  was  in  Albany.  The  trip  across  the  state 


FROM  GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT       171 

to  Buffalo  was  made  in  record  time,  and  it  was  yet  early 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  14th  of  September  when  he  left 
the  train  at  a  station  on  the  outskirts  of  Buffalo  and 
drove  directly  to  the  house  of  his  friend  Ansley  Wilcox, 
on  Delaware  Avenue.  It  was  an  old  brick  house  painted 
white,  with  a  row  of  stately  pillars  in  front  of  a  deep 
veranda.  It  had  been  used  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century  by  United  States  officers  in  command  of  the 
military  post  at  Buffalo. 

The  body  of  the  ex-President  was  at  the  house  of  his 
friend,  John  G.  Milburn,  the  president  of  the  Exposition. 
Here  Roosevelt  immediately  repaired  and  met  the  mem 
bers  of  McKinley's  Cabinet  then  in  Buffalo.  Elihu  Root, 
the  Secretary  of  War,  told  him  it  was  the  desire  of  the 
Cabinet  that  there  should  be  no  further  delay  in  his 
taking  the  oath  of  office.  The  ceremony  took  place  in 
the  early  evening  in  the  library  of  the  Wilcox  mansion. 
District  Judge  John  R.  Hazel  administered  the  oath, 
which  all  Presidents,  from  Washington,  have  taken: 

"I  do  solemnly  swear  that  I  will  faithfully  execute 
the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  will,  to 
the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Roosevelt  at  once  made  the  following  statement 
which  brought  a  deep  sense  of  relief  to  the  nation:  "In 
this  hour  of  deep  national  grief,  I  wish  to  state  that  it 
is  my  aim  to  continue  absolutely  unbroken  the  policy 
of  William  McKinley  for  the  peace,  prosperity  and  honor 
of  our  beloved  country." 

Those  present  at  the  ceremony  were  Elihu  Root, 
Secretary  of  War;  Ethan  Allen  Hitchcock,  Secretary  of 
the  Interior;  John  D.  Long,  Secretary  of  the  Navy; 
Charles  Emory  Smith,  Postmaster  General;  besides 


172  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

members  of  the  Wilcox  and  Milburn  families,  the 
doctors  who  had  been  attending  tKe  late  President,  and 
the  private  secretaries,  Cortelyou  and  Loeb.  By  a 
curious  coincidence,  one  of  those  present,  Elihu  Root,  had, 
as  a  friend,  been  present  twenty  years  before  at  a  similar 
ceremony  when  Vice-President  Arthur  succeeded  Presi 
dent  Garfield. 

The  new  President  accompanied  the  remains  of 
President  McKinley  to  Washington,  and  subsequently 
to  Canton,  Ohio.  He  stood  by  the  side  of  the  grave 
during  those  five  minutes  when  all  the  wheels  of  industry 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country  were 
stopped  and  eighty  million  people  paused  in  their  multi 
tudinous  occupations  in  loving  respect  for  the  kindly, 
upright  gentleman,  the  patriot  and  statesman  who  had 
met  his  cruel  fate  so  bravely. 

No  better  statement  concerning  his  predecessor 
has  ever  been  made  than  that  contained  in  President 
Roosevelt's  first  official  proclamation,  in  which  he  said: 
"President  McKinley  crowned  a  life  of  largest  love  for 
his  fellowmen,  of  most  earnest  endeavor  for  their  welfare, 
by  a  death  of  Christian  fortitude;  and  both  the  way  in 
which  he  lived  his  life  and  the  way  in  which,  in  the 
supreme  hour  of  trial,  he  met  his  death,  will  remain  for 
ever  a  precious  heritage  of  our  people." 

The  position  of  the  new  President  was  a  most  difficult 
one.  McKinley  had  had,  as  he  deserved  to  have,  the 
confidence  of  the  nation.  True,  the  man  whom  death, 
sudden  and  tragic,  had  put  in  McKinley's  place,  was, 
himself,  deservedly  popular,  especially  with  the  younger 
part  of  the  nation.  But  popularity  is  one  thing;  popular 
confidence  quite  another.  Roosevelt  was  only  forty- 
two — younger  than  any  other  man  who  had  ever  held 


FROM   GOVERNOR  TO  PRESIDENT       173 

the  great  office  of  President.  Furthermore,  the  very 
characteristics  which  made  him  popular,  his  infinite 
dash  and  originality,  are  not  qualities  which  lead  men 
easily  to  give  their  confidence  to  those  who  possess  them. 
Again,  there  were  the  grim  facts  of  our  national  history. 
Four  times  before  had  death  placed  a  Vice-President  in 
the  Presidential  chair.  Tyler  succeeding  Harrison,  had 
disrupted  his  party  by  repudiating  the  policies  on  which 
both  he  and  Harrison  ha$  bedn  elected;  Fillmore,  tak 
ing  Taylor's  place,  had  eridedr  his  party's  power  for  all 
time;  Johnson,  succeeding  ^Lincoln,  made  by  the  folly 
of  his  actions  far  worse  the  catastrophe  of  Lincoln's 
death;  while  Arthur,  succeeding  Garfield,  though  he 
gave  the  country  a  respectable  administration,  had  not 
created  any  general  desire  for  his  retention  in  office. 

Roosevelt  succeeded  where  four  others  failed.  He 
did  so,  not  merely  because  he  was  an  infinitely  abler 
man  than  Tyler  or  Fillmore  or  Johnson  or  Arthur,  but 
also  because  of  that  characteristic  in  him  to  which,  as 
much  as  to  any  other,  single  thing,  he  owed  all  the  great 
successes  of  his  life.  Although  his  enemies,  up  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  accused  him  of  filling  the  cosmos  with  his 
own  ego,  he  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  always  infinitely 
more  interested  in  the  work  he  had  to  do  than  in  either 
his  own  future  or  in  the  attitude  of  the  nation  towards 
himself .  x  When  he  said,  as  he  took  the  oath  of  office, 
that  he  would  carry  out  the  policy  of  McKinley,  he  meant, 
as  he  always  did,  exactly  what  he  said.  There  was  no 
better  way  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  his  predecessor 
than  to  ask  the  members  of  McKinley's  Cabinet  to  remain 
in  office.  So  he  asked  them  to  remain.  Told  by  his 
friends  that  people  would  regard  him  as  but  a  "pale  copy 
of  McKinley,"  he  replied,  that  he  was  not  worrying 


174  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

about  that.  Neither  was  he  concerned  as  to  whether 
the  members  of  his  Cabinet  would  be  faithful  to  him. 
All  he  asked  of  them  was  that  they  should  be  faithful 
to  their  work.  Thus  he  followed  the  policy  of  McKin- 
ley,  keeping  McKinley's  Cabinet,  and  thereby  at  once 
gained  the  confidence  of  the  people. 

As  new  problems  arose,  he  did  not  ask  himself  whether 
he  was  or  was  not  meeting  them  as  McKinley  would  have 
met  them;  his  desire  was  to  meet  them  in  the  right  way. 
Thus,  by  not  worrying  about  how  people  would  judge 
him  and  by  losing  himself  in  his  work,  as  well  as  by  his 
force  and  ability,  he  soon  impressed  his  personality  on 
the  nation,  demonstrating  his  competence  for  his  high 
office  by  his  deeds.  The  story  of  his  Presidency  is  the 
story  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  not  the  story  of  any  "pale 
copy"  of  his  predecessor./ 


CHAPTER  XII 

ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE 

THE  White  House  had  seen  many  Presidents  and 
their  families,  but  no  man  at  all  like  Roosevelt  had 
ever  been  there  before.  He  was  bubbling  over 
with  an  energy  which  he  communicated  to  everyone  who 
came  in  contact  with  him.  This  tremendous  mental  and 
physical  activity  had  always  been  characteristic.  W.  R.; 
Thayer  in  his  life  of  Hay  relates  that  when  Roosevelt  w 
Civil  Service  Commissioner  Rudyard  Kipling  was 
Washington.  Kipling  used  to  drop  in  at  the  Cosmos  Club, 
and  presently  Roosevelt  would  "come  and  pour  out  pro 
jects,  discussions  of  men  and  politics,  criticisms  of  books,  in 
a  swift  and  full-volumed  stream,  tremendously  emphatic 
and  enlivened  by  bursts  of  humor."  "I  curled  up  on 
the  seat  opposite,"  said  Kipling,  "and  listened  and  won 
dered,  until  the  universe  seemed  to  be  spinning  around 
and  Theodore  was  the  spinner."  The  spinner  now  held 
the  greatest  constitutional  office  on  earth.  Another 
Englishman,  John  Morley,  declared  that  the  two  things  in 
America  which  seemed  to  him  most  extraordinary  were 
Niagara  Falls  and  President  Roosevelt. 

Daily  physical  exercise  of  a  strenuous  character  was 
essential  to  him.  He  usually  succeeded  in  getting  in  two 
hours  out  of  every  twenty -four  in  horseback  riding,  tennis, 
walking,  broadsword  or  single  stick,  according  to  the 
weather  or  the  time  of  year.  While  he  was  Governor  he 
had  regularly  wrestled  three  or  four  times  a  week  with  the 
champion  middle-weight  wrestler  of  America.  The  cham- 

(175) 


176  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

pion,  departing  from  Albany,  left  a.  substitute  who  could 
neither  take  care  of  himself  nor  of  Roosevelt,  with  the  result 
that  Roosevelt  caved  in  two  of  his  antagonist's  ribs  and  had 
two  of  his  own  badly  damaged.  Thereafter  he  ceased  what 
we  may  call  serious  wrestling,  though  for  a  time  after  he 
became  President,  he  engaged  in  minor  wrestling  bouts 
with  "Joe"  Grant,  champion  of  the  District  of  Columbia. 
He  took  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  science  of  jiu  jitsu, 
which  was  then  new  to  this  country,  and  for  two  seasons  a 
famous  Japanese  wrestler  on  a  visit  to  America  gave  him 
instructions  in  it.  John  Hay,  Secretary  of  State,  gravely 
records  in  his  diary,  under  date  of  April  26,  1904:  "At 
the  Cabinet  this  morning  the  President  talked  of  his 
Japanese  wrestler,  who  is  giving  him  lessons  in  jiu  jitsu. 
He  says  the  muscles  of  his  throat  are  so  powerfully  de 
veloped  by  training  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  ordinary 
man  to  strangle  him.  If  the  President  succeeds  once  in  a 
while  in  getting  the  better  of  him,  he  says,  'Good! 
Lovely!'  " 

Roosevelt  was  a  good  boxer  and  exceedingly  fond  of 
the  sport.  More  than  one  famous  champion  of  the  squared 
circle  was  his  devoted  and  respected  friend.  He  kept  up 
his  boxing  after  he  became  President  until  a  young  cap 
tain  of  artillery  cross-countered  him  on  the  left  eye.  The 
blow  broke  the  little  blood-vessels  and  as  a  consequence 
the  sight  was  thereafter  so  dimmed  that  the  eye  became 
practically  useless.  Had  it  been  his  right  eye  the  African 
hunting  trip  could  not  have  been  undertaken  unless,  indeed, 
he  had  learned  to  shoot  from  his  left  shoulder. 

He  played  tennis  vigorously  on  the  White  House 
courts,  though  he  never  became  very  expert,  there  being 
no  danger  at  any  time  of  the  President's  entering  the 
National  Tennis  Tournament  at  Newport. 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE     177 

Another  favorite  form  of  exercise  was  horseback  riding. 
His  splendid  horsemanship  is  well  attested  by  the  photo 
graphs  taken  of  him  while  jumping  hurdles  at  Chevy 
Chase,  one  photograph  showing  him  clearing  in  good 
style  a  high  wooden  fence,  being  perhaps  the  most 
popular  picture  taken  while  he  was  President. 

On  October  22,  1904,  a  fall  with  his  horse  nearly  cost 
him  his  life.  At  first  it  was  thought  that  he  was  only  badly 
battered  about  the  face,  but  he  had  landed  fairly  on  his 
head,  his  neck  and  shoulders  were  severely  wrenched,  and 
for  a  few  days  there  was  a  grave  possibility  of  meningitis. 
Had  he  not  been  so  strong  and  well  knit,  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  his  spine  would  have  suffered  permanent 
injury. 

He  was  also  a  devotee  of  cross-country  walking.  All 
children  know,  or  ought  to  know,  the  delight  of  walking 
from  one  point  to  another  without  turning  to  the  right  or 
left,  over  fences  and  across  streams,  scrambling  up  hill 
and  sliding  down.  A  few  grown-ups  have  the  health, 
strength  and  boyish  spirit  to  follow  the  practice  in  maturer 
years.  Roosevelt  was  one  of  these  grown-ups.  His 
favorite  place  to  take  a  ten  or  fifteen  mile  "stroll"  was 
along  Rock  Creek,  where  there  was  plenty  of  climbing  to 
be  had.  Sometimes,  in  the  early  spring,  when  the  ice  had 
not  entirely  disappeared,  he  would  arrange  for  a  "point  to 
point"  walk,  he  and  his  companions  swimming  the  creek, 
or  even  the  Potomac  itself,  if  that  river  came  in  their  way. 

Roosevelt  says,  "Of  course,  on  such  occasions  we  had 
to  arrange  that  our  return  to  Washington  should  be  when 
it  was  dark,  so  that  our  appearance  might  scandalize  no 
one."  It  is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  the  staid  ones  in 
Washington  and  elsewhere,  hearing  of  these  trips,  had  a 
tendency  to  be  scandalized. 
12 


178  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Rain,  snow  and  sleet  never  interfered  with  his  going 
out;  neither  was  he  easily  turned  back  by  mishap.  Colonel 
W.  H.  Crook,  in  his  "Memories  of  the  White  House," 
relates  that  the  President  on  one  occasion  took  a  stroll  for 
about  two  hours  through  the  inarshes  southwest  of  the 
Executive  Mansion,  with  Pinchot,  of  the  Forest  Service, 
and  Sloan,  of  the  Secret  Service.  "Pushing  vigorously 
onward,  as  usual,  the  President  came  to  an  especially 
soft  spot  in  the  soggy  surroundings,  but,  looking  ahead, 
thought  he  saw  firm  ground."  Calling  to  the  others  to 
follow,  he  plunged  along  and  was  soon  up  to  his  waist  in 
the  icy  water.  It  was  some  minutes  before  the  party 
extricated  themselves.  The  thermometer  was  below 
freezing;  the  atmosphere  was  raw;  the  hour  was  already 
late,  but  the  President,  instead  of  turning  back,  merely 
laughed  at  the  little  adventure,  and  started  off  at  a  swing 
ing  gait  across  country. 

Once  he  took  a  distinguished  citizen  out  for  a  stroll 
and  directed  the  course  of  their  steps  toward  a  steep  and 
rocky  hill.  As  they  began  the  climb,  he  turned  to  his 
companion  and  said,  "We  must  get  up  to  the  top  here." 
When  they  had  reached  the  top,  the  other  turned  to  him 
and  said,  "Mr.  President,  may  I  ask  why  we  are  up  here?" 
"Why,  I  came  up  here,"  answered  Roosevelt,  "to  see  if 
you  could  make  it." 

The  faster  the  pace  and  the  more  obstacles  there  were 
to  be  surmounted,  the  better  the  President  was  pleased. 
On  one  of  these  occasions,  shortly  after  he  came  to  the 
White  House,  he  invited  a  newly  appointed  bureau  chief 
to  be  one  of  the  party.  They  walked  along  the  shore  of  the 
Potomac  River  to  a  point  where  a  stone  quarry  jutted 
out  into  the  water.  Here  it  was  possible  either  to  take  a 
boat  or  to  crawl  around  the  face  of  the  quarry,  holding  on 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE   HOUSE     179 

with  eyelids  and  finger  tips.  The  President  and  his  son 
Theodore  and  the  young  official  chose  the  more  difficult 
method,  while  the  stouter  and  less  agile  members  of  the 
party  took  the  boat.  All  got  home  in  safety  and  the 
President  felt  increased  confidence  in  the  spirit  of  the  new 
bureau  chief,  to  whom  he  had  entrusted  the  performance 
of  a  difficult  piece  of  official  work. 

On  these  strenuous  afternoon  walks  the  President  was 
accompanied  by  cabinet  officers,  senators,  representatives, 
diplomats  and  other  distinguished  foreigners,  in  fact,  by 
any  one  whom  it  occurred  to  him  to  ask;  but  more  often 
by  his  intimate  personal  friends,  the  French  Ambassador, 
M.  Jusserand,  James  R.  Garfield,  Robert  Bacon,  Lawrence 
Murray,  Gifford  Pinchot,  or  Herbert  Knox  Smith. 

Some  of  the  young  officers  wrho  accompanied  him  on 
his  walks  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
older  officers  were  physically  unfit  for  any  serious  exertion. 
After  consulting  with  Major-Generals  Wood  and  Bell,  he 
issued  an  order  directing  that  each  officer  should  prove 
himself  fit  to  walk  fifty  or  ride  one  hundred  miles  in  three 
consecutive  days — not  a  very  drastic  requirement,  but 
he  had  learned  by  experience  that  a  non-military  nation 
reacts  in  curious  fashion  to  any  attempt  to  make  its  army 
or  navy  efficient.  Extraordinary  as  it  may  now  appear, 
no  sooner  had  he  issued  the  order  than  the  press  of  the 
country  rang  with  this  new  evidence  of  his  "capricious 
tyranny."  Many  elderly  officers  of  sedentary  habits 
intrigued  with  their  friends  in  Congress  to  have  the  order 
annulled,  arid  one  naval  bureau  chief  went  so  far  as  to 
rebuke  some  young  officers  who  walked  fifty  miles  in  one 
day,  requiring  them  to  take  the  walk  over  again  in  three 
days,  in  accordance  with  the  letter  of  the  President's 
order.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Roosevelt  did  not  know 


180  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  this  action,  or  he  would  have  m#de  short  work  of  that 
bureaucrat.  The  clamor  did  not  subside  until  the  Presi 
dent  himself  and  two  officers,  in  one  day,  rode  more  than 
a  hundred  miles  over  frozen  Virginia  roads,  part  of  the 
time  in  a  snow  and  sleet  storm,  in  this  way  demonstrating 
the  silliness  of  the  opposition  to  an  order  requiring  each 
officer  to  perform  the  same  feat  in  three  days. 

""  During  the  early  part  of  Roosevelt's  first  administra 
tion  the  White  House  was  entirely  remodeled.  For  a  good 
many  years  this  change  had  been  considered,  and  various 
plans  had  been  suggested  for  carrying  it  into  effect.  By 
the  alterations  there  was  produced  a  real  ColoniaLmansion 
with  spacious  rooms,  wide  halls  and  ample  stairways. 
The  entire  eastern  interior  of  the  old  building  was  torn 
out  and  rebuilt,  a  new  floor  and  wainscoting  were  put  in 
the  historic  East  Room,  and  other  new  floors  were  added 
in  various  parts  of  the  house.  The  most  important  change 
was  the  building  of  a  long,  low  office  extension  in  which 
the  executive  business  is  now  transacted. 

The  White  House  is,  of  course,  not  only  an  American 
gentleman's  home,  but  it  is  the  official  residence  of  the 
head  of  the  nation.  To  manage  the  necessary  corps  of 
servants  and  assistants,  to  prepare  for  formal  and  informal 
dinners  and  receptions,  and  to  superintend  the  upkeep  of 
the  entire  establishment  is  a  very  considerable  enterprise. 
Some  idea  of  the  size  of  this  as  a  housekeeping  proposition 
may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  during  Roosevelt's 
administration  $145,000.00  was  annually  appropriated  by 
Congress  for  the  maintenance  of  the  White  House  and  for 
the  payment  of  wages  and  similar  current  expenses. 

The  Roosevelts  entertained  in  two  ways;  they  held 
state  dinners  and  receptions  in  fulfilment  of  their  official 
duties,  and  they  also  invited  their  own  personal  friends  and 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE   HOUSE     181 

the  Colonel's  political  acquaintances  on  occasions  of  a 
less  formal  character.  When  they  entertained  formally, 
they  did  so  as  the  President  and  his  wife;  when  they 
entertained  privately,  it  was  as  Mr.  and  Mrs  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt  was  at  once  the  most  democratic  and  the 
most  formal  of  Presidents.  On  state  occasions  there  was 
more  formality  in  the  WTbite  House  than  there  had  been 
under  any  President  since  Washington.  State  dinners 
were  not  given  in  the  manner  of  a  rich  private  citizen 
entertaining  his  friends,  for  on  such  occasions  the  Colonel 
never  forgot  that  he  was  acting  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  every  smallest  detail  of  the  function  impressed 
the  guests  with  that  fact.  On  the  occasion  of  a  formal 
dinner,  the  guests  were  assembled  in  the  East  Room  before 
the  appointed  hour.  Promptly  at  eight  the  doors  would 
open  to  admit  the  President  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt.  The 
President  would  give  his  arm  to  the  lady  who  was  to  sit 
on  his  right,  and  would  at  once  lead  the  way  to  the  great 
dining-room.  Some  complained  that  this  was  aping  the 
style  and  manner  of  royalty  on  similar  occasions;  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  was  nothing  of  the  sort.  It  merely 
emphasized  the  fact  that  the  entertainment  of  the  diplo 
matic  corps  or  of  the  judiciary,  as  the  case  might  be, 
was  one  of  the  official  acts  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

These  state  dinners  were  undoubtedly  dreary,  as  all 
such  functions  must  be.  There  is  usually  no  common 
interest  to  unite  the  guests,  except  the  political  activities 
of  the  men  of  the  party.  The  guests  are  invited,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  conversation,  but  simply  for  the  purpose 
of  fulfilling  that  public  duty,  born  of  immemorial  custom, 
which  requires  that  distinguished  citizens  be  handsomely 


182  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

fed  at  stated  intervals.  In  this  manner,  dinners  were 
given  every  year  to  the  Cabinet,  fhe  Supreme  Court,  the 
army,  the  navy  and  the  diplomatic  corps. 

State  receptions  were  matters  of  considerable  import 
ance.  Shortly  after  the  Roosevelts  came  to  the  White 
House,  nearly  five  hundred  guests  arrived  at  a  reception 
for  which  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  invitations  had  been 
issued.  After  this,  Mrs.  Roosevelt  sent  out  invitations 
which  required  a  reply,  and  limited  her  entertainments 
to  those  whom  she  had  actually  asked.  The  annual  New 
Year's  reception  was  open  to  anyone  who  cared  to  attend, 
but  certain  people  were  asked  to  assist  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  in  receiving  the  guests,  and  these  were  furnished 
with  identification  cards  which  admitted  them  to  the 
Blue  Room  before  the  reception  actually  began.  Am 
bassadors  and  ministers  of  legation  were  also  given  cards 
which  admitted  them  by  the  south  entrance  to  a  special 
suite,  from  which  they  could  make  their  way,  at  their 
convenience,  to  the  principal  gathering. 

Roosevelt  was  very  fond  of  informal  entertainments, 
and  used  them  constantly  to  get  in  touch  with  other  men 
on  matters  in  which  they  were  mutually  interested.  He 
often  invited  a  morning  caller  to  return  at  lunch  time  to 
complete  an  interrupted  conversation.  Frequently  a 
telephone  message  would  ask  a  guest  on  short  notice  to 
lunch  at  the  White  House,  and  the  President  was  thus 
often  able  to  see  in  a  friendly  way  men  with  whom  it 
would  have  been  more  difficult  to  confer  in  the  stiffer 
atmosphere  of  the  Executive  study.  After  the  Cabinet 
meetings  one  or  more  of  the  members  usually  stayed  to 
have  lunch  with  the  President,  in  order  to  continue  the 
discussion  of  some  matter  which  had  arisen  during  the 
meeting.  Andre  Tardieu  remembers  meeting  at  one 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE   HOUSE     183 

luncheon  two  Catholic  prelates,  a  Protestant  bishop,  a 
college  president  and  the  French  Ambassador  and  his 
wife.  All  of  these  had,  no  doubt,  been  asked  because  the 
President  had  some  special  matter  which  he  wanted  to 
take  up  with  each  one  of  them. 

Jacob  A.  Riis  had  been  a  close  friend  of  Roosevelt's 
ever  since  the  days  of  his  service  as  Police  Commissioner. 
Riis  and  his  wife  were  frequent  visitors  at  the  White 
House  and  he  has  left  an  interesting  picture  of  his  im 
pressions  there.  "I  shall  never  forget,"  he  writes,  "the 
Christmas  before  last,  when  I  told  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  at  breakfast  of  my  old  mother  who  was  sick 
in  Denmark  and  longing  for  her  boy,  and  my  hostess's 
gentle  voice  as  she  said,  'Theodore,  let  us  cable  over  our 
love  to  her.'  And  they  did.  Before  that  winter  day  was 
at  an  end  (and  the  twilight  shadows  were  stealing  over 
the  old  town  by  the  bleak  North  Sea,  even  while  we  break 
fasted  in  Washington)  the  telegraph  messenger,  in  a  state 
of  bewilderment — I  dare  say  he  has  not  got  over  it  yet- 
brought  mother  this  despatch: 

"  'THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  Dec.  20,  1902. 
"  'MRS.  RIIS,  Ribe,  Denmark: 

'Your  son  is  breakfasting  with  us.    We  send  you  our 
loving  sympathy. 

"  'THEODORE  AND  EDITH  ROOSEVELT.'  " 

Like  every  President,  Colonel  Roosevelt  received 
countless  gifts  from  admirers  all  over  the  country.  During 
the  time  when  there  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  the 
"big  stick,"  he  received  quantities  of  big  sticks  cut  from 
every  kind  of  tree.  Crates  came  constantly  with  live  ani 
mals  of  every  description,  including  such  undomesticated 
species  as  foxes  and  coons.  One  day  one  of  the  news 
papers  reported,  very  probably  with  no  basis  of  truth,  that 


184  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

a  dog  of  which  the  President  was  particularly  fond  had 
been  whipped  in  a  fight.  A  few  days  later  there  arrived 
from  one  of  Roosevelt's  friends  in  Ohio  a  crate  containing 
an  enormous  bulldog.  With  the  crate  came  a  note  explain 
ing  that  the  President  might  safely  put  his  trust  in  the 
bulldog,  because  "the  brute  had  never  yet  been  licked  in  a 
fight,"  and  the  sender  didn't  think  he  ever  would  be.  Of 
course  the  President  was  not  able  to  keep  gifts  of  this  kind, 
and  had  to  find  a  home  for  the  dog  outside  of  the  White 
House.  But  the  animal  flourished  in  Washington  for  some 
time,  and  is  reputed  to  have  justified  his  former  owner's 
high  opinion  of  him  as  a  warrior. 

The  Roosevelts  brought  a  large  family  of  children  to 
the  White  House  with  them.  Alice  was  already  a  young 
lady  nearly  eighteen,  and  her  marriage  to  Nicholas 
Longworth,  one  of  the  Republican  Representatives  from 
Ohio,  was  a  great  social  event  in  Washington  in  the  winter 
of  1906.  Theodore,  Jr.,  Kermit  and  Ethel  were  fourteen, 
twelve  and  ten  respectively.  The  two  youngest  were 
Archibald  and  Quentin,  who  were  seven  and  four.  The 
household  was  a  lively  one  and  would  have  afforded  many 
interesting  stories  for  the  reporters  if  they  had  been 
allowed  to  publish  them.  But  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
drew  a  sharp  line  between  their  official  life  and  their 
private  life. 

Since  1889  they  had  spent  most  of  their  winters  in 
Washington  and  they  had  their  own  circle  of  personal  friends 
and  their  own  strictly  family  life.  No  President  has  ever 
known  personally  so  many  reporters  and  representatives  of 
the  press.  Roosevelt  permitted  the  publication  of  all  kinds 
of  stories  in  regard  to  his  own  manifold  activities,  his  stren 
uous  walks  and  rides,  his  boxing,  wrestling  and  tennis. 
But  he  would  not  permit  the  magazines  and  newspapers 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE   HOUSE     185 

to  be  filled  with  accounts  of  the  intimate  life  of  his  family. 
The  reporters  knew  that  he  disliked  this  and  generally 
respected  his  wishes.  One  representative  of  a  large  daily, 
however,  having  nothing  of  startling  interest  to  relate, 
sent  his  paper  a  report  that  the  Roosevelt  children  had 
amused  themselves  by  chasing  a  turkey  over  the  White 
House  grounds  and  by  finally  despatching  it  with  a  gun 
or  hatchet.  There  was,  of  course,  not  one  word  of  truth 
in  the  tale.  The  President  was  furious.  As  a  father,  and 
as  a  sportsman,  he  keenly  resented  the  imputation  that 
his  children  had  been  engaged  in  an  act  of  wanton  cruelty, 
and  he  was  probably  aware  that  it  was  the  kind  of  story 
that  would  readily  be  believed  by  some  of  those  who  had 
read  accounts  of  his  western  adventures.  He  ordered  that 
neither  the  reporter  who  had  invented  the  tale,  nor  any 
other  representative  of  his  paper,  should  ever  be  permitted 
to  enter  the  White  House  again  during  his  administration. 
The  two  younger  children,  Archie  and  Quentin,  were 
lively  boys  full  of  a  good  deal  of  natural  mischief.  There  is 
a  story  that  on  the  first  night  of  their  arrival  they  set  out 
for  an  inspection  of  the  grounds.  As  darkness  approached, 
the  lamp  lighter  came  down  Pennsylvania  Avenue  light 
ing  the  gas  jets  on  the  lamp  posts  as  he  came.  As  soon  as 
he  had  completed  his  work  on  one  side  of  the  park  he 
hurried  over  to  the  other,  whereupon  the  two  boys 
scrambled  up  the  lamp  posts,  one  by  one,  and  turned  out 
all  the  lights  which  he  had  already  lit.  In  the  middle  of 
this  enterprise  they  were  suddenly  arrested  by  a  watch 
man  who  had  been  somewhat  mystified  by  the  curious 
phenomenon  of  the  disappearing  lights.  When  the  watch 
man  found  that  his  two  prisoners  were  sons  of  the  Presi 
dent,  he  wisely  decided  to  allow  them  to  escape  from 
custody. 


186  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  children  were  given  the  freje  run  of  the  White 
House  grounds  and  were  allowed  to  climb  the  trees  and 
generally  to  make  themselves  at  home  so  long  as  they  did 
not  interfere  w^ith  the  business  or  pleasure  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt's  many  visitors.  As  soon  as  they  were  old 
enough  to  learn  they  wrere  all  taught  to  ride  horseback,  so 
that  they  were  able  to  join  their  father  and  mother  in  the 
afternoon's  exercise.  Their  pets  were  numerous  and 
ubiquitous.  Theodore  at  one  time  had  a  blue  macaw 
named  Eli  Yale;  Kermit  had  a  black  and  tan  terrier 
called  "Jack;"  while  Quentin  when  he  was  only  five  rode 
a  tiny  pony,  "Algonquin."  Jacob  Riis  recalls  his  amuse 
ment  when  Kermit  produced  a  pet  kangaroo  rat  from  his 
pocket  at  breakfast  one  morning,  and  let  it  hop  across  the 
table  to  eat  a  piece  of  sugar  from  the  President's  hand. 

.Archie  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  an  animal  shop  near 
the  White  House,  from  which  the  owner  allowed  him  to 
borrow  pets  from  time  to  time.  On  one  occasion  when  the 
President  was  talking  with  Representative  Hepburn 
about  the  important  matter  of  the  Railroad  Rate  Bill, 
Archie  burst  in  to  show  his  father  a  king  snake  which  he 
had  brought  home  from  the  store.  He  was  holding  the 
snake  inside  his  coat  and  it  had  managed  to  wriggle 
partly  down  his  sleeve.  Hepburn,  naturally,  did  not  take 
in  exactly  what  was  going  on,  and  seeing  that  the  boy  was 
having  some  difficulty  with  his  coat,  started  to  help  him 
off  with  it.  When  the  coat  came  off  and  disclosed  the 
small  boy  plus  the  large  snake,  the  Congressman  jumped 
back  with  considerable  alacrity. 

Playing  with  the.  children  was,  for  the  President,  an 
important  and  necessary  part  of  the  day.  The  favorite 
amusement  was  the  game  of  bear.  The  Colonel  himself 
took  the  part  of  a  very  active  and  ferocious  animal  and 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE     187 

was  pursued  across  the  floor  by  the  young  hunters,  armed 
with  umbrellas  or  fire  irons,  or  any  other  object  which 
was  at  hand.  When  the  chase  ended  by  the  killing  or 
capture  of  the  bear,  the  positions  were  reversed,  and  the 
President  became  the  hunter  while  the  children  scrambled 
under  the  chairs  and  tables  to  escape  his  deadly  aim. 

The  younger  children,  especially  Quentin,  usually 
appeared  at  the  afternoon  tennis  games  and  sat  perched 
on  the  fence,  keeping  a  watchful  eye  on  the  pitchers  of 
lemonade  and  the  ginger-bread  or  cookies  which  were  set 
out  to  refresh  the  players,  and  joining  with  enthusiasm  in 
their  consumption. 

No  interest  of  the  children  was  so  small  that  the  busy 
President  did  not  find  time  to  share  it.  Colonel  Crook, 
the  disbursing  officer  of  the  White  House,  tells  of  a 
gentleman  from  Indiana  who  called  upon  him  one  day 
bringing  his  son  who  was  eight  years  old.  The  little  boy 
had  read  of  Quentin,  and  being  about  the  same  age,  had 
concluded  to  make  a  present  for  him.  So  in  his  father's 
workshop,  after  considerable  effort,  he  succeeded  in 
making  a  steel  top  which  he  had  now  come  to  present. 
Roosevelt,  hearing  that  the  boy  was  there,  insisted  on 
seeing  him,  and  on  finding  out  how  the  top  could  be  spun. 
Accordingly  the  boy  was  brought  to  the  White  House 
where  he  and  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  nation  solemnly 
conferred  on  the  subject  of  tops  and  how  to  spin  them. 

Christmas  was  always  a  very  happy  time  in  the 
Roosevelt  household.  The  Colonel  looked  back  to  the 
Christmas  celebrations  of  his  own  childhood  with  pecu 
liar  happiness,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  tried  to 
reproduce  those  festivities  as  far  as  possible  for  their  own 
children.  Every  child  had  his  own  stocking,  of  course, 
and  afterwards  the  larger  presents.  For  simplicity's  sake 


188  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

there  was  no  Christmas  tree,  but  this  did  not  seem  to  mar 
the  family's  pleasure.  On  their  second  Christmas  in  the 
White  House,  Archie  hid  a  tiny  tree  in  an  unused  closet 
and  got  the  White  House  electrician  to  put  little  colored 
electric  lights  on  it.  When  the  great  day  came  the  door 
was  thrown  open  and  disclosed  the  tree  covered  with 
boyish  presents  for  his  father  and  mother. 

The  family  life  of  the  Roosevelts  in  the  White  House 
was  thoroughly  normal  and  happy.  The  father  and 
mother  were  devoted  to  their  children  and  were  never 
distracted  from  their  duty  toward  them  by  considerations 
which  might  have  been  thought  more  important.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  they  felt  keenly  that  nothing  could  be  more 
important  than  the  training  of  their  own  children,  and 
they  were  careful  to  carry  out  in  their  private  life  the 
principles  of  home-making  which  the  Colonel  so  often 
insisted  upon  in  public. 

To  have  in  the  White  House  a  man  who  was  a  public 
character,  and  at  the  same  time  their  father,  must  have 
puzzled  the  children.  When  the  Colonel  left  to  join  his 
regiment  in  1898,  one  of  the  boys,  by  way  of  saying  good 
bye,  clasped  him  round  the  legs  with  a  beaming  smile  and 
said,  "And  is  my  father  going  to  the  war,  and  will  he 
bring  me  back  a  bear?"  When  he  returned  some  months 
later,  in  a  strange  uniform,  the  same  little  boy  was  a 
good  deal  puzzled  as  to  his  identity,  but  greeted  him 
pleasantly  with,  "Good  afternoon,  Colonel."  Shortly 
afterwards  somebody  asked  him  where  his  father  was, 
and  he  answered,  "I  don't  know;  but  the  Colonel  is 
taking  a  bath." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  work  and  responsibility  of 
the  Presidency  wears  down  the  strength  of  the  strongest 
man,  but  the  work  did  not  wear  on  Roosevelt.  Doubtless 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE   WHITE  HOUSE     189 

he  had  his  moments  of  discouragement  and  weariness, 
but  ninety -nine  one-hundredths  of  the  time  he  thoroughly 
enjoyed  the  life,  turning  from  one  piece  of  work  to  another 
with  tireless,  enthusiastic  energy.  Each  morning  he 
literally  bounded  down  the  White  House  stairs  to  his 
executive  offices,  and  plunged  into  the  multifarious  and 
often  momentous  duties  and  activities  of  the  day  with  a 
zest  that  infected  all  about  him. 

The  handling  of  the  business  of  the  White  House  was 
a  model  of  efficiency.  Every  appointment  was  carefully 
scheduled  as  far  as  possible  in  advance.  The  files  were 
very  complete  and  ready  of  access,  and  as  a  business 
office  it  was  probably  one  of  the  best  in  the  government 
service.  Upon  arriving  at  his  office,  the  President  would 
dispose  of  such  important  parts  of  his  mail  as  were  brought 
to  his  attention,  glancing  at  the  newspapers,  usually 
looking  over  four  of  the  leading  papers  from  different 
parts  of  the  country.  From  about  ten  until  noon,  unless 
it  were  Cabinet  day,  he  would  see  people  by  appointment, 
and  also  senators,  representatives,  ambassadors  and 
ministers,  a  constant  stream  of  men  representing  political 
and  other  interests.  Their  business  was  promptly  and 
efficiently  disposed  of,  usually  a  bit  of  fun  or  social  talk 
being  mingled  with  more  serious  matters.  But  there  were 
no  delays  or  stoppages  of  the  stream  except  when  some 
particular  character  arrived — and  he  might  be  almost 
any  sort  of  character — an  explorer,  a  naturalist  with  a 
new  bird,  John  L.  Sullivan  from  Boston,  a  Rough  Rider, 
a  ranchman,  or  one  of  the  shining  lights  of  literature. 
When  this  happened,  people  might  wait  for  a  while,  while 
the  President  extracted  the  utmost  possible  information 
of  interest  and  amusement  from  that  particular  caller. 
Then  the  stream  would  go  on  again.  The  callers  came  first 


190  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

into  the  main  outer  office.  From  there,  when  the  Cabinet 
was  not  in  session,  some  of  them  would  be  admitted  to 
the  Cabinet  room.  Very  frequently  the  door  between  the 
Cabinet  room  and  the  President's  office  would  be  open, 
and  the  waiting  callers  would  see  the  vigorous  action 
and  hear  the  remarks  of  the  President,  whose  business 
seemed  never  to  be  such  that  there  was  need  of  any 
secrecy. 

In  the  meantime  there  would  be  gathered  in  the  outer 
office  and  in  the  Cabinet  room  plain  American  citizens — 
men,  women  and  children — from  all  over  the  country, 
who  had  come  merely  to  see  the  President.  Three  or  four 
times  during  the  morning  business  would  stop,  these 
friendly  visitors  would  line  up  all  around  the  Cabinet 
room,  the  President  would  drop  everything  else  and  start 
down  the  line.  Usually  many  of  the  callers  had  someone 
to  introduce  them  to  the  President.  In  about  half  the 
cases  he  either  knew  these  people  personally  or  knew  of 
them,  and  his  amazing  memory  and  tremendous  interest 
in  people  enabled  him  to  say  something  that  was  personal 
to  each  visitor,  and  especially  to  the  children.  Fifty  or 
sixty  people  would  thus  see  him,  shake  hands,  and  in 
fifteen  minutes  go  out  again  with  the  sense  of  having  met 
a  friend  and_of  having  spoken  to  the  President.  He  had 
a  genuine  love  for  human  beings  of  whatever  station  in 
life  and  probably  enjoyed  this  part  of  his  morning's  work 
more  than  anything  else. 

A  Congressman  from  a  western  state  once  told  me 
that  there  arrived  in  Washington  from  the  city  of  X  one 
of  his  constituents,  a  Mr.  B.,  a  saloon-keeper.  He  brought 
with  him  his  wife  and  little  girl.  They  wanted  to  meet  the 
President.  The  Congressman's  heart  sank  somewhat  as 
he  looked  at  the  trio.  Mrs.  B.'s  ideas  of  dress  for  state 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE   WHITE   HOUSE     191 

occasions  were  lurid,  while  the  child  wore  at  one  time  at 
least  three  sweaters  of  different  colors.  The  Congressman 
was  equal  to  the  occasion,  however,  and  they  w^ent  to  the 
White  House  and  stood  among  the  waiting  guests  while 
the  President  came  down  the  line.  He  gave  Mr.  B.  a 
hearty  shake  of  the  hand,  found  out  his  native  city,  and 
instantly  asked  him  about  a  mutual  friend  living  in  the 
same  ward.  Then,  shaking  Mrs.  B.  by  the  hand,  he  was 
about  to  pass  on  when  his  attention  was  attracted  by  the 
child.  Stooping  down,  he  spoke  heartily  to  the  little  girl, 
saying  to  her  mother,  "This  is  your  child — a  perfect 
likeness."  "Yes,"  replied  the  proud  mother,  "and  I  have 
six  more  at  home."  Like  a  flash  the  President  grasped  her 
by  the  hand  again,  shaking  it  vigorously,  and  saying,  in 
his  most  emphatic  manner:  "Bully  for  you,  Mrs.  B., 
bully  for  you."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  that  couple,  like 
hundreds  of  others,  left  Washington  with  a  feeling  that 
their  visit  had  been  a  great  event  in  their  lives. 

If  it  happened  to  be  Cabinet  day,  either  Tuesday  or 
Friday,  the  schedule  which  I  have  outlined  would  be 
somewhat  changed.  Few  morning  appointments  were 
made  for  these  days.  The  Cabinet  met  at  eleven,  in  the 
big  Cabinet  room  adjoining  the  President's  office,  the 
members  sitting  around  the  table  in  the  order  of  the 
respective  seniorities  of  their  departments,  and  laid  be 
fore  the  President  the  important  questions  arising  in  the 
jurisdiction  of  each. 

About  one  or  half-past  was  luncheon  in  the  WTiite 
House.  Here  almost  always  there  were  guests — usually 
naturalists  or  literary  men  or  travelers,  but  frequently 
government  business  or  politics  had  some  part  in  the 
discussion.  The  President  w^as  amazingly  open  and  frank 
in  his  talk,  but  to  the  best  of  the  knowledge  of  his  intimate 


192  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

friends,  that  confidence  was  nevor  abused.  Either  he 
always  knew  just  whom  to  trust  or  else  the  way  in  which 
he  put  things  and  the  surroundings  of  themselves  im 
pressed  a  pledge  of  discretion.  At  all  events  the  frankness 
of  discussion  made  one  of  the  great  charms  of  the  meal. 
The  food  was  always  very  simple — soup,  hominy,  and 
frequently  Virginia  ham,  salad,  and  some  light  dessert. 
The  rest  of  the  family  wrere  usually  at  the  table,  except 
the  younger  children. 

About  half-past  two  the  President  would  go  back  to 
the  business  office  and  for  the  next  hour  or  so  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  the  technical  part  of  his  work  as  Chief 
Executive,  the  examining  of  reports,  conferences  with  his 
various  subordinates,  writing  of  important  letters,  all  of 
these  handled  with  amazing  swiftness  and  vigor.  Indeed 
he  got  through  the  work  in  about  one-third  the  time  that 
the  ordinary  good  executive  would  have  taken.  He  had 
an  astounding  power  of  grasping  all  the  essentials  of  a 
case  and  of  going  at  once  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  Again 
and  again  his  subordinates  would  present  elaborate  and 
long  reports  over  which  they  had  worked  for  days.  He 
would  glance  through  them,  and  arrive,  apparently,  at  a 
hasty  decision.  Later  the  subordinates  would  find  that 
the  President  knew  more  about  the  report  than  they  them 
selves  knew,  and  had  seen  further  into  all  its  bearings. 

Then  about  four  o'clock  or  a  little  after  came  the 
sacred  hour  of  exercise  and  recreation,  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  If  Congress  were  not  in  session,  and  the  Presi 
dent's  family  were  at  their  summer  home  on  Long  Island, 
the  group  with  whom  he  had  walked  or  played  tennis 
sometimes  spent  a  long  and  wonderful  evening  on  the 
back  porch  of  the  White  House,  where  the  President  and 
his  more  intimate  friends  talked  of  literature,  politics 


ROOSEVELT  IN  THE   WHITE  HOUSE     193 

and  natural  history,  and  the  younger  men  listened  and 
wondered  at  the  sweep  and  accuracy  of  the  talk. 

If,  however,  Congress  were  in  session,  or  if  it  were  in 
the  social  season,  the  return  to  the  White  House  would 
mark  the  end  of  the  recreation.  At  about  eight  o'clock 
came  dinner,  usually  attended  by  familiar  friends.  After 
dinner  the  limits  of  the  President's  day  were  absolutely 
indefinite.  He  might  have  conferences  with  Senators  and 
Cabinet  officers  to  any  hour.  Frequently  his  subordinates 
would  find  they  had  an  appointment  at  the  White  House 
at  eleven  or  twelve  at  night  or  at  one  in  the  morning. 
These  evening  conferences  usually  dealt  with  more 
difficult  and  intricate  questions  where  a  few  experts 
were  consulted  on  the  more  important  questions  of  policy, 
and  where  there  was  less  of  decision,  more  of  discussion. 

It  was  a  tremendous  day's  program  to  carry  out,  day 
after  day,  and  year  after  year,  but  Roosevelt's  mental 
and  physical  powers  were  more  than  equal  to  the  strain. 
After  seven  and  a  half  years  crammed  with  incident  and 
responsibility,  he  was  just  as  vigorous,  and  just  as  brim 
ful  of  the  zest  of  the  life  as  on  the  day  when  he  first  took 
up  his  duties  as  President. 

This  was  made  possible  not  only  by  his  own  abun 
dant  vitality  but  by  the  complete  happiness  of  his  home 
life.  On  December  2, 1886,  he  had  married  his  childhood 
friend,  Edith  Kermit  Carow,  and  had  found  in  her  a 
wise  and  helpful  companion  amid  his  manifold  activities. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  FIRST  TERM 

K)OSEVELT'S    administration    was   crowded   with 
achievements    of   national    and    of   international 
significance.    In  the  field  of  internal  affairs  the 
history  of  his  relation  to  big  business  and  to  labor,  the 
story  of  his  conservation  policy  and  the  account  of  his 
work  for  the  Navy  are  of  such  importance  that  they  are 
treated  in  separate  chapters  of  this  book.   But  there  were 
other  matters  of  far-reaching  consequence. 

The  solid  South  had  always  been  a  stumbling  block  to 
Republican  Presidents.  To  maintain  the  integrity  of  the 
party  they  had  felt  it  necessary  to  select  Federal  office 
holders  from  the  small  body  of  Southern  Republicans.  As 
a  result,  the  choice  often  fell  upon  white  politicans  of  the 
carpet-bagger  type.  This  was  inevitable,  because  the 
recollection  of  the  Civil  War  and  of  the  days  of  recon 
struction  still  prevented  white  men  of  high  standing  from 
joining  the  Republican  party.  Roosevelt's  policy  in  the 
matter  of  Southern  appointments  differed  radically  from 
that  of  his  predecessors.  He  appreciated  the  dearth  of 
material  within  his  own  party  land  therefore  did  not 
hesitate  on  more  than  one  occasion  to  find  his  man  among 
the  Democrats.  It  was  little  more  than  a  month  after  his 
accession  to  office  that  he  appointed  Thomas  G.  Jones  to 
be  a  United  States  District  Judge  in  Alabama,  and  George 
E.  Koester  as  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  in  South 
Carolina,  both  of  whom  were  Democrats  of  good  standing 
and  reputation  in  their  respective  communities. 

(194) 


THE  FIRST  TERM  195 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  been  very 
glad  to  see  political  sectionalism  put  out  of  business  by  a 
break-up  of  the  solid  South;  and  the  course  upon  which 
he  thus  embarked  was  well  calculated  to  achieve  this  end. 
A  display  of  fairness  to  the  Southerners  of  the  opposite 
party,  coupled  with  his  own  personal  popularity,  would 
have  gone  far  to  create  an  entering  wedge  for  Republican 
ism  in  the  South. 

But  the  President's  own  conception  of  fair  dealing 
probably  prevented  the  realization  of  this  hope.  He  was 
not  willing  to  refuse  all  >  recognition  to  the  colored 
race  in  the  matter  of  appointments.  Before  the  question 
of  colored  appointments  became  acute,  however,  another 
incident  occurred  which  cost  him  much  of  the  support 
which  might  otherwise  have  been  his  in  the  Southern 
states.  In  October,  1901,  while  his  new  policy  of  practically 
non-partisan  appointments  was  rapidly  earning  for  him, 
the  respect  of  the  Southern  voters,  he  invited  Booker  T. 
Washington  to  dine  with  him  at  the  White  House. 
Washington  was  the  colored  president  of  the  Tuskegee 
Institute  in  Alabama  and  was  by  common  consent  the 
leader  of  thought  and  purpose  among  the  colored  people. 
The  President  admired  him  and  numbered  him  among 
his  friends.  Wishing  to  consult  him  upon  a  subject  of 
mutual  interest,  he  had  very  naturally  asked  him  to  the 
White  House. 

Mr.  Francis  E.  Leupp,  who  was  close  to  the  President, 
arranged,  upon  Washington's  suggestion,  that  he  should 
make  his  visit  without  meeting  any  reporters.  Unfor 
tunately,  however,  for  Mr.  Washington's  plan,  his  name 
was  inscribed  upon  the  record  kept  by  the  White  House 
door-keepers.  This  record  was  open  to  the  inspection  of 
the  newspaper  representatives,  and,  as  a  consequence, 


196  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

there  appeared  in  the  next  mornjng's  Washington  Post, 
at  the  bottom  of  an  inside  page,  the  obscure  announce 
ment:  "Booker  T.  Washington,  of  Tuskegee,  Alabama, 
dined  with  the  President  last  evening."  Had  the  Southern 
newspapers  been  content  to  let  the  matter  rest  there, 
nothing  more  would  have  come  of  it.  Unfortunately, 
however,  they  hit  upon  this  innocent  news  item  and 
immediately  set  up  an  uproar.  They  accused  the  Presi 
dent  of  intending  to  set  up  negro  supremacy  in  the  South, 
and  of  having  made  a  stage  play  to  secure  the  colored 
vote.  The  first  accusation  was  disproved  by  the  fact  that 
the  President  had  appointed  to  two  responsible  Federal 
offices  members  of  the  dominant  race,  although  they  were 
not  of  his  own  party.  The  second  charge  was  equally 
absurd,  for  no  one  really  believes  that  the  colored  man 
needs  a  share  in  the  spoils  of  office  to  convert  him  to 
Republicanism. 

The  President  made  no  public  statement  in  regard 
to  the  occurrence.  But  he  received  innumerable  letters 
on  the  subject;  some  from  friends  who  urged  him  to  give 
the  South  a  lesson  by  foisting  as  many  negroes  as  possible 
upon  it;  others  warning  him  never  to  set  his  foot  on 
Southern  soil  so  long  as  he  was  President.  But  all 
this  clamor  affected  him  not  at  all.  Not  long  afterwards 
he  named  as  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Charleston,  S.  C., 
Doctor  William  D.  Crum,  an  educated  colored  man  of 
standing  and  character,  with  an  excellent  reputation 
among  both  races.  This  produced  another  outburst  of 
excitement,  but  the  President  stood  firm.  He  explained 
that  he  considered  Crum  entirely  fit  for  the  appointment, 
and  that  he  should  certainly  not  discriminate  against 
him  on  account  of  his  color.  In  a  letter  of  November  26, 
1902,  answering  a  vehement  protest  from  a  gentleman  of 


THE  FIRST  TERM  197 

Charleston,  he  said;  "The  great  majority  of  my  appoint 
ments  in  every  state  have  been  of  white  men.  North  and 
South  alike  it  has  been  my  sedulous  endeavor  to  appoint 
only  men  of  high  character  and  good  capacity,  whether 
white  or  black.  But  it  has  been  my  consistent  policy  in 
every  state  where  their  numbers  warranted  it  to  recognize 
colored  men  of  good  repute  and  standing  in  making 
appointments  to  office."  He  persisted  in  this  policy 
throughout  his  administration.  When  circumstances 
justified  it  he  appointed  to  Federal  office  colored  men  of 
ability  and  of  high  character,  but  he  frequently  named 
a  white  Democrat  when  he  believed  that  such  a  nomina 
tion  would  best  serve  the  interests  of  the  country. 

Toward  the  end  of  1902  there  occurred  an  incident 
which  illustrated  his  attitude  toward  the  colored  problem 
and  also  his  characteristic  way  of  meeting  a  difficult 
situation.  Mrs.  Minnie  Cox  had  been  for  some  years  the 
colored  postmistress  at  Indianola,  Mississippi.  A  mob, 
inspired  by  a  wave  of  race  prejudice,  compelled  Mrs. 
Cox  to  resign  her  position  and  to  leave  the  town.  The 
matter  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  President. 
Of  course  the  obvious  thing  to  do  was  to  assert  the  majesty 
of  the  law  by  sending  Mrs.  Cox  back  under  an  escort  of 
United  States  troops.  Roosevelt,  however,  adopted  a 
much  simpler  expedient.  He  simply  closed  the  post-office 
and  by  this  means  compelled  the  citizens  of  Indianola  to 
go  five  miles  to  the  next  town  to  get  their  mail. 

Early  in  Roosevelt's  administration  rumors  of  fraud 
in  the  Post-Office  Department  had  become  more  and  more 
numerous.  Finally  Payne,  the  Postmaster  General, 
carried  the  charges  to  the  President.  Payne  suggested  a 
quiet  investigation  which  would  spare  the  party  the  dis 
grace  and  injury  of  public  exposure.  The  President, 


198  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

however,  took  a  different  view  of  the  situation.  If  there 
was  dishonesty,  he  was  determined  to  find  it  out  and  to 
punish  the  wrong-doers  in  the  light  of  day.  He  argued, 
and  rightly,  that  no  amount  of  publicity  could  hurt  the 
Republican  party  if  they  were  honestly  discharging  the 
duty  of  cleaning  their  own  house.  The  investigation  was 
therefore  undertaken  and  relentlessly  carried  through 
under  the  immediate  supervision  of  Joseph  L.  Bristow,  the 
Fourth  Assistant  Postmaster  General,  who  was  peculiarly 
qualified  for  the  work  both  by  experience  and  temper 
ament.  The  President  took  a  keen  interest  in  it  from  the 
beginning,  and  constantly  issued  orders  and  made  sug 
gestions  to  the  investigators.  As  special  assistants  to  the 
Attorney-General  he  procured  Charles  J.  Bonaparte  and 
Holmes  Conrad,  the  latter  of  whom  was  a  Democrat  to 
whom  the  uncovering  of  Republican  wrong-doing  was 
naturally  a  pleasant  task.  The  result  was  a  complete 
exposure  of  colossal  frauds,  and  a  cleansing  of  the  Post- 
Office  Department  of  which  it  stood  in  sore  need.  The 
President's  judgment  as  to  the  effect  of  this  washing  of 
the  party's  dirty  linen  in  public  was  vindicated  by  the 
result  of  the  election  of  1904.  He  had  shown  himself 
willing  to  pursue  and  chastise  the  rogues  of  his  own 
fold,  and  the  people,  knowing  that  rogues  were  common 
to  both  parties,  rejoiced  to  have  a  President  who  was  able 
and  anxious  to  hunt  them  impartially. 

Roosevelt  rendered  no  greater  service  to  the  nation 
than  the  settlement  of  the  great  Anthracite  Coal  Strike 
in  the  fall  of  1902.  Without  his  intervention  there  is 
little  doubt  that  there  would  have  befallen  the  country 
a  calamity  very  much  more  serious  than  any  since  the 
Civil  War. 

The  trouble  between  the  operators  and  the  miners  of 


THE   FIRST  TERM  199 

the  Pennsylvania  anthracite  region  was  an  old  story.  In 
the  fall  of  1900,  a  strike  had  led  to  a  temporary  settlement 
which  involved  an  increase  of  ten  per  cent  in  the  miners' 
wages.  Senator  Hanna  had  been  largely  instrumental 
in  effecting  this  agreement  and  he  had  wrung  concessions 
from  the  operators  by  warning  them  that  a  stubborn 
attitude  would,  in  the  coming  election,  throw  the 
miners  into  the  arms  of  Bryan.  By  the  spring  of  1902 
the  temporary  arrangement  had  come  to  an  end  and 
the  miners  approached  the  operators  with  the  request 
that  the  entire  subject  should  be  carefully  considered  and 
a  final  agreement  reached.  On  May  8th,  John  Mitchell, 
president  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  wrote 
the  owners  setting  forth  the  specific  demands  of  the 
miners.  These  were  for  a  twenty  per  cent  increase  in 
wages,  for  an  eight -hour  day,  and  for  a  certain  method 
of  payment  by  weight.  In  his  letter  he  offered  to  submit 
the  controversy  to  arbitration  by  Archbishop  Ireland, 
Bishop  Potter  and  a  third  arbitrator,  to  be  chosen  by 
these  two.  The  operators,  however,  refused  to  discuss 
the  question  of  wages  and  hours  any  further.  Accordingly, 
on  May  12th,  the  great  strike  began,  and  by  June  2d, 
147,000  men  were  out  of  work.  Although  the  questions 
of  pay  and  of  hours  of  labor  were  at  issue  between  the 
contending  parties,  the  real  source  of  the  trouble  and  the 
fundamental  cause  of  dispute  was  the  failure  of  the  owners 
to  recognize  the  authority  of  the  United  Mine  Workers 
of  America  to  speak  for  the  miners.  They  were  willing 
to  treat  with  the  miners  individually,  but  refused  to  deal 
with  them  collectively  through  their  accredited  agents. 
Through  the  summer  the  strike  did  not  cause  very 
serious  inconvenience.  The  strikers  were  supported  partly 
by  their  own  savings  and  partly  by  funds  contributed  to 


200  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

them  by  the  bituminous  miners  anji  other  wage  earners. 
The  ordinary  reserve  supplies  of  coal  prevented  any 
serious  injury  to  industry  for  some  time.  But  as  fall 
approached  the  situation  grew  very  serious  indeed.  By 
October,  coal  which  usually  sold  for  three  dollars  a  ton 
was  selling  for  fifteen  or  twenty  dollars,  while  the  poor 
had  to  pay  as  much  as  a  cent  a  pound  at  retail.  Soft  coal 
too  had  risen  in  price  three  or  four  hundred  per  cent.  The 
cost  of  the  necessaries  of  life  began  to  increase  materially 
since  coal  played  a  controlling  part  in  their  manufacture. 
Unless  some  action  were  taken  speedily,  hundreds  of 
thousands  were  threatened  with  privation  and  death  for 
lack  of  fuel. 

The  coal  fields  were  owned  to  a  large  extent  by  the 
eastern  railroads,  and  these  in  turn  were  controlled  by  a 
small  body  of  capitalists  at  the  head  of  whom  stood  J. 
Pierpont  Morgan.  There  was  some  disorder  at  the  mines 
during  the  summer,  and  Governor  Stone  of  Pennsylvania 
called  out  the  state  militia  to  suppress  it.  The  operators 
took  the  position  that  if  properly  protected,  they  could 
run  the  mines  and  produce  as  much  coal  as  the  public 
needed.  But  the  presence  of  the  troops  had  no  effect  on 
the  mining  of  coal  and  the  situation  remained  as  bad  as 
ever.  Both  sides  were  obdurate;  each  was  determined 
not  to  give  in  to  the  other. 

Roosevelt  felt  very  keenly  his  responsibility  in  the 
matter.  He  realized  that  whatever  action  he  took  could 
not  be  in  accordance  with  any  clearly  expressed  consti 
tutional  power;  but  he  was  determined  to  take  some 
action.  During  the  summer  it  was  suggested  to  him  that 
he  should  acquaint  himself  with  the  facts  of  the  situation 
so  as  to  be  ready  to  act  promptly  when  the  time  came. 
He  accepted  the  suggestion  immediately  and  within  a  few 


''/infilinnt,  Washington,  D.  C. 

OVER  THE  JUMPS 

The  splendid  horsemanship  of  Colonel  Roosevelt  is  well  attested  by  these 
photographs  taken  at  Chevy  Chase  during  his  presidency.  Riding  was  one  of  his 
favorite  forms  of  exercise  and  he  had  the  remarkable  faculty  of  being  able  to  rest 
and  divert  his  mind  from  the  problems  of  statesmanship  by  strenuous  physical 
activity. 


THE  FIRST  TERM  201 

minutes  had  telegraphed  to  Carroll  D.  Wright,  the 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  directing  him  to  make  the 
necessary  investigation  and  report. 

When  October  brought  the  first  signs  of  cold  weather 
and  there  still  seemed  no  indication  of  a  settlement  of  the 
strike,  the  President  himself  took  a  hand  in  the  situation. 
He  asked  representatives  of  both  sides  to  meet  him  in 
Washington  to  see  whether  some  agreement  could  be 
arrived  at.  /He  had  with  him  at  the  meeting  Attorney- 
General  Knox,  George  B.  Cortelyou,  his  private  secretary, 
and  Carroll  D.  Wright,  the  Commissioner  of  Labor.  j  The 
operators  were  represented  by  the  presidents  or  the 
several  railroads  interested,  and  the  miners  by  John 
Mitchell,  the  president  of  their  organization,)  Roosevelt 
began  the  meeting  by  stating  that  he  disclaimed  "any 
right  or  duty  to  intervene  in  this  way  upon  legal  grounds 
or  upon  any  official  relation  that  he  bore  to  the  situation," 
but  that  it  was  his  earnest  desire  that  the  conference 
might  result  in  some  kind  of  a  settlement. 

Mitchell  immediately  answered  that  he  and  his  friends 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  submit  the  whole  matter  to 
arbitration  by  a  tribunal  to  be  named  by  the  President. 
The  meeting  then  adjourned  until  three  o'clock  to  give 
the  operators  an  opportunity  to  consider  and  prepare 
their  replies.  Wrhen  they  returned  at  the  appointed  hour 
they  each  had  typewritten  statements  from  which  they 
read  their  answers.  George  F.  Baer,  president  of  the 
Reading  Company — the  largest  single  operator  in  the 
field — made  the  first  statement  which  presented  sub 
stantially  the  same  views  as  the  others.  He  described  and 
greatly  exaggerated  the  lawlessness  of  the  strikers  and 
reminded  the  President  that  it  was  his  constitutional 
duty  to  send  United  States  troops  on  request  of  the 


202  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Governor  or  Legislature  of  a  states  to  suppress  domestic 
violence.  :sYou  see,"  he  said,  "there  is  a  lawful  way  to 
secure  coal  for  the  public.  The  duty  of  the  hour  is  not  to 
waste  time  negotiating  with  the  fomenters  of  this  anarchy 
and  insolent  defiance  of  law,  but  to  do  as  was  done  in  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion,  restore  the  majesty  of  the  law." 
He  concluded  by  offering  to  submit  any  controversy  in  a 
given  locality  to  arbitration  by  the  judges  of  the  local 
court  of  common  pleas.  The  operators  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  proposition  that  the  whole  matter  should  be 
submitted  to  a  commission  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  and  the  meeting  broke  up  with  apparently  no 
progress  made  toward  an  agreement. 

The  President  was  justly  indignant  at  the  attitude  of 
the  operators.  "They  came  down  in  a  most  insolent  frame 
of  mind,"  he  said,  "refused  to  talk  of  arbitration  or  other 
accommodation  of  any  kind,  and  used  language  that  was 
insulting  to  the  miners  and  offensive  to  me."  But  this 
statement  was  made  more  than  ten  years  later.  At  the 
time  he  concealed  his  resentment  and  continued  his  efforts 
to  effect  a  settlement.  The  attitude  of  the  operators  at 
this  meeting  gave  rise  to  an  outburst  of  wrath  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  The  people  fully  appreciated  what 
a  winter  without  coal  would  be  and  their  anger  against 
the  small  body  of  men  who  stood  in  the  way  of  a  recon 
ciliation  showed  itself  in  countless  ways.  Grover  Cleve 
land  wrote  to  the  President,  approving  the  course 
which  he  had  pursued  and  expressing  his  indignation  at 
the  conduct  of  the  operators.  The  President  at  once 
wrote  to  Mr.  Cleveland,  asking  if  he  would  consent  to 
serve  as  chairman  of  the  Arbitration  or  Investigating 
Commission  which  would  probably  be  appointed.  This 
Cleveland  consented  to  do. 


THE   FIRST  TERM  203 

But  the  President  did  not  rely  upon  finally  securing 
the  operators'  assent  to  arbitration.  He  was  prepared  to 
go  to  very  great  lengths  in  order  to  save  the  country  from 
a  coal  famine.  He  accordingly  sent  for  Major -General 
Schofield,  in  whom  he  had  great  confidence,  and  told  him 
that  if  the  arbitration  scheme  failed,  he  would  send  the 
United  States  Army  to  the  coal  fields  under  the  command 
of  the  General  with  instructions  to  dispossess  the  opera 
tors  and  to  run  the  mines  as  a  receiver  until  the  President's 
Commission  should  make  its  report.  He  had  no  right 
under  the  Constitution  to  send  troops  into  Pennsylvania 
unless  the  Governor  or  the  State  Legislature  asked  for 
them.  Accordingly  he  sent  for  Senator  Quay,  and,  without 
telling  him  the  details  of  his  plan,  arranged  that  whenever 
he  gave  word  from  Washington  Governor  Stone  would 
request  Federal  intervention.  He  was  now  ready  to 
avert  disaster,  whether  or  not  the  operators  consented  to 
arbitrate. 

Shortly  after  the  abortive  conference  of  October  3d, 
Elihu  Root,  the  Secretary  of  War,  discussed  the  matter 
further  with  Mr.  Morgan  in  New  York,  and  finally 
Morgan,  on  October  13th,  after  an  interview  with  the 
President,  agreed  to  submit  the  case  to  arbitration.  The 
operators,  however,  demanded  that  they  should  be  allowed 
to  dictate  the  way  in  which  the  Commission  should  be 
made  up.  It  must  have  five  members:  an  army  engineer, 
a  mining  expert,  an  eminent  sociologist,  a  mining  engineer, 
and  a  United  States  judge  from  the  Eastern  District  of 
Pennsylvania.  The  President  was  very  anxious  to  appoint 
Cleveland  to  the  Commission,  rightly  thinking  that  this 
would  establish  popular  confidence  in  the  fairness  of  their 
findings,  but  the  operators  were  obstinate  and  Cleveland's 
name  had  to  be  dropped.  The  President  also  felt  that 


204  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

some  representative  of  labor  should  serve  on  the  Com 
mission,  but  to  this  the  owners  positively  refused  to  agree. 
After  two  hours  of  argument  a  solution  suddenly  occurred 
to  the  President.  He  announced  that  he  agreed  to  the 
terms  laid  down  by  the  operators.  Accordingly  he  ap 
pointed  as  Commissioners,  General  John  M.  Wilson,  an 
army  engineer;  Thomas  H.  Watkins,  a  mining  expert; 
Edward  W.  Parker,  a  mining  engineer,  and  Judge  George 
Gray.  When  it  came  to  the  eminent  sociologist,  the 
President  took  the  opportunity  to  make  the  appointment 
which  fairness  to  the  miners  demanded.  He  named  Mr. 
Edward  E.  Clark, president  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Railway 
Conductors,  adding  to  the  public  statement  of  the  ap 
pointment,  "The  President  assuming  that  for  the  pur 
poses  of  such  a  Commission,  the  term  "sociologist" 
means  a  man  who  has  thought  and  studied  deeply  on 
social  questions  and  has  practically  applied  his  know 
ledge." 

Both  sides  had  agreed  to  abide  by  the  awards  of  the 
Commission  and  the  representatives  of  the  miners  had 
agreed  that  their  men  would  go  back  to  work  immediately. 
This  they  did  on  October  23d.  On  March  18,  1903,  the 
Commission  filed  its  report  containing  its  findings  and 
awards.  The  miners  received  a  ten  per  cent  increase  in 
pay,  a  nine -hour  day  was  established,  and  substantial 
recognition  was  secured  for  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America.  Since  this  award,  which  was  loyally  accepted 
by  both  sides,  there  has  been  industrial  peace  in  the 
anthracite  coal  region. 

^When  TtoosevelFTiad  succeeded  to  the  Presidency 
upon  McKinley's  death,  he  had,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  persuaded  all  of  McKinley's  Cabinet  to  retain 
their  portfolios,  but  with  the  passage  of  time,  changes 


THE   FIRST  TERM  205 

necessarily  occurred.  The  first  of  these  was  on  December 
17,  1901,  when  Henry  C.  Payne  took  the  place  of  Charles 
Emory  Smith  as  Postmaster-General.  The  appointment 
of  Mr.  Payne  caused  considerable  surprise.  He  was  a 
party  manager  of  experience  but  with  none  of  the  inde 
pendent  tendencies  which  the  President  was  supposed  to 
favor.  It  was,  however,  this  very  fact  which  led  Roose 
velt  to  select  Payne  for  the  position.  He  felt  that  his 
Cabinet  needed  a  practical  politician  and  that  Payne,  who 
had  been  chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Executive 
Committee,  would  fill  this  need. 

On  January  8,  1902,  occurred  the  second  change  in  his 
official  family.  Lyman  J.  Gage  resigned  the  Treasury 
portfolio  and  Leslie  M.  Shaw,  of  Iowa,  was  selected  to 
take  his  place.  Shaw  was  a  successful  banker  who  had 
made  a  fortune  by  finding  Eastern  money  for  Western 
mortgages.  During  the  free-silver  agitation  his  convic 
tions  and  his  best  interest  alike  had  driven  him  into 
politics  as  the  supporter  of  a  sound  gold  currency.  He 
became  Governor  of  Iowa  and  it  seemed  that  in  the  year 
1904  he  might  become  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 
But  McKinley's  untimely  death  put  an  end  to  his  Presi 
dential  chances,  although  it  afforded  him  the  opportunity 
of  holding  a  Cabinet  position.  He  was  a  great  man  for 
getting  things  done,  for  cutting  red-tape  and  for  surmount 
ing  apparently  insurmountable  obstacles  and  for  this 
reason  Roosevelt  liked  him  and  appointed  him. 

John  D.  Long,  McKinley's  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
under  whom  Roosevelt  had  served  in  1897  and  1898, 
resigned  early  in  the  year  1902.  Personal  sorrow  and 
anxiety  had  made  him  anxious  to  return  to  the  quiet  life  of 
an  ordinary  citizen.  In  his  place  the  President  appointed 
William  H.  Moody,  of  Massachusetts,  whom  he  had 


206  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

known  as  a  member  of  Congress,  and  with  whom  he  was 
already  on  terms  of  friendship.  Moody  had  served  in 
Congress  as  a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on 
Appropriations,  and  had  taken  a  special  interest  in  naval 
affairs,  so  that  he  appeared  to  be  well  qualified  to  act  as 
the  President's  assistant  in  carrying  out  a  program  for 
increasing  America's  strength  on  the  high  seas. 

The  new  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  was 
created  by  an  act  of  Congress,  approved  by  the  President 
on  February  14,  1903.  Two  days  later  he  appointed 
George  B.  Cortelyou  to  be  its  first  Secretary.  Cortelyou 
had  been  private  secretary  to  McKinley  and  had  been 
retained  in  his  position  by  the  new  President.  He  had  a 
genius  for  organization  which  was  particularly  valuable 
in  starting  the  new  department  on  its  way. 

During  the  year  1904,  a  number  of  further  changes  took 
place  in  the  Cabinet.  Elihu  Root,  the  Secretary  of  War, 
having  completed  the  military  reforms  which  had  been  be 
gun  under  his  supervision,  resigned  to  resume  his  law  prac 
tice  in  New  York  City,  and  was  succeeded  by  William  H. 
Taft,  whose  reputation  as  a  Federal  judge  and  as  Governor- 
General  of  the  Philippines  certainly  justified  his  selection. 
In  this  year,  too,  Philander  C.  Knox  resigned  the  Attorney- 
Generalship  to  accept  an  appointment  by  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  to  the  United  States  Senate.  Moody  moved 
over  from  the  Navy  Department  to  take  Knox's  place 
and  was  himself  succeeded  by  Paul  Morton,  a  railroad 
man  who  had  commended  himself  to  the  President  by 
his  fairness  and  ability  in  helping  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
rebate  evil.  The  appointments  of  Moody  and  Morton, 
together  with  that  of  Victor  H.  Metcalf,  as  Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor,  were  announced  on  June  24,  1904, 
the  day  after  the  President  had  received  the  nomination 


THE  FIRST  TERM  207 

for  a  second  term.  On  October  10th  of  the  same  year, 
Robert  J.  Wynne  succeeded  Hgnry  C.  Payne  as  Post 
master-General.  By  the  end  of  4 904^ therefore,  Roosevelt 
had  a  Cabinet  whose  composition  had  changed  almost 
entirely  during  the  three  years  of  his  Presidency. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Coal  Strike,  it  was  our 
foreign  policy  which  furnished  the  most  striking  incidents 
of  Roosevelt's  first  term.  Matters  gravely  affecting  our 
relations  with  Cuba,  Santo  Domingo,  Venezuela,  Turkey, 
Great  Britain  and  Panama,  came  up  in  rapid  succession 
and  were  necessarily  disposed  of  to  a  large  extent,  and 
often  wholly,  by  the  President  himself.  "In  foreign 
affairs,"  he  says,  "the  principle  from  which  we  never 
deviated  was  to  have  the  nation  behave  toward  other 
nations  precisely  as  a  strong,  honorable  and  upright  man 
behaves  in  dealing  with  his  fellow-men." 

Ever  since  the  Spanish  War  our  relations  with  Cuba 
had  formed  a  difficult  and  pressing  problem.  The  Span 
iards  had  withdrawn  shortly  after  the  termination  of  the 
war,  leaving  the  island  under  the  jurisdiction  of  General 
Leonard  Wood  as  Military  Governor.  There  had  followed 
a  Constitutional  Convention  composed  of  delegates 
selected  at  a  general  election.  The  United  States  had 
formally  disclaimed  any  intention  of  exercising  sovereignty 
over  Cuba,  and  had  expressed  its  determination  to  leave 
the  island  as  soon  as  its  pacification  was  completed.  We 
were  anxious  to  carry  out  this  pledge  as  quickly  as 
possible;  but  we  appreciated  the  fact  that  Cuba  stood  in 
a  peculiar  relation  to  us.  By  an  amendment  to  the  Army 
Appropriation  Bill  of  March  2,  1901,  known  as  the  Platt 
Amendment,  the  President  was  directed  to  leave  the 
control  of  Cuba  to  its  people  so  soon  as  the  Cubans  should 
adopt  a  constitution  which  should,  among  other  things, 


208  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

grant  to  the  United  States  the  right  to  intervene  for  the 
protection  of  Cuban  independence,  and  should  further 
give  us  rights  in  certain  naval  stations  on  the  island.  The 
Cubans  were  assured  that  it  was  not  our  intention  to 
meddle  in  their  affairs  except  on  just  and  substantial 
grounds.  On  June  12,  1901,  the  Constitutional  Conven 
tion  completed  a  constitution  which  embodied  the  pro 
visions  of  the  Platt  Amendment.  On  the  last  day  of  1901 
a  general  election  of  national  officers  was  held,  and  finally, 
on  May  20,  1902,  the  United  States  withdrew  and  the 
government  was  formally  transferred  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Cuba. 

Roosevelt  believed  that  there  had  been  two  great 
moral  issues  in  the  campaigns  of  1896,  1898  and  1900, 
"  the  imperative  need  of  a  sound  and  honest  currency  and 
the  need  after  1898  of  meeting  in  manful  and  straight 
forward  fashion  the  extra-territorial  problems  arising  from 
the  Spanish  War."  With  respect  to  Cuba  he  felt  a  peculiar 
sense  of  obligation,  to  which  he  called  attention  in  his 
first  message  to  Congress.  "Cuba,"  he  said,  "has  in  her 
constitution  affirmed  what  we  desired,  that  she  should 
stand,  in  international  matters,  in  closer  and  more  friendly 
relations  with  us  than  with  any  other  power;  and  we  are 
bound  by  every  consideration  of  honor  and  expediency  to 
pass  commercial  measures  in  the  interest  of  her  material 
well-being."  He  therefore  asked  for  a  substantial 
reduction  in  the  tariff  duties  on  Cuban  imports  into  the 
United  States.  But  for  two  years  it  was  impossible  to 
carry  this  plan  into  execution.  The  principal  subject  of 
import  from  Cuba  was  sugar,  and  the  American  beet  and 
cane-sugar  planters  objected  strongly  to  a  reduction  of  the 
tariff  which  would  necessarily  affect  their  business.  With 
them  were  various  farmers'  associations  and  those  who 


THE  FIRST  TERM  209 

favored  a  high  tariff  on  general  principles.  The  American 
Sugar  Refining  Company,  on  the  other  hand,  favored 
reciprocity  with  Cuba  because  it  would  enable  them  to 
get  raw  sugar  for  refining  at  a  lower  price. 

The  interests  opposed  to  reciprocity  were  strong 
enough  to  prevent  favorable  action  by  Congress,  and  the 
President  accordingly  sent  a  special  message  urging  the 
passage  of  a  reciprocity  bill.  At  the  next  session  he  again 
asked  for  action  in  his  annual  message,  but  still  there  was 
no  response  from  Congress.  He  had  set  his  heart,  however, 
upon  reciprocity  with  Cuba  and  was  determined  to  carry 
it  through  as  a  measure  of  justice  to  the  island. 
Finding  Congress  obdurate,  he  negotiated  a  treaty  with 
the  Cuban  Government  providing  for  certain  mutual 
reductions  in  the  import  duties  of  the  two  countries.  The 
Senate  failed  to  act  on  this  treaty  at  the  current  session 
and  was  therefore  convened  by  the  President  in  special 
session  on  March  5,  1903.  After  two  weeks'  discussion 
the  treaty  was  ratified  with  certain  amendments  and  with 
the  curious  provision  that  it  should  not  go  into  effect 
until  approved  by  Congress  as  a  whole.  Since  the  special 
session  included  only  the  Senate  and  not  the  House  this 
meant  that  the  matter  was  left  in  abeyance  until  the  fall. 
Without  waiting  until  the  beginning  of  the  regular  fall 
session,  the  President  called  an  extra  session  of  Congress 
on  November  9, 1903,  and  sent  to  them  a  message  strongly 
urging  the  approval  of  the  treaty.  He  again  called  at 
tention  to  our  moral  obligations  to  Cuba,  and  to  the 
economic  advantages  which  the  treaty  would  secure  for 
us.  The  House  passed  the  bill  to  approve  the  treaty  by 
an  overwhelming  vote,  but  the  Senate,  although  they  had 
ratified  the  treaty  itself,  were  reluctant  to  take  the 
necessary  final  step.  At  last,  however,  they  passed  the 

14 


210  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

bill  on  December  16,  1903,  and  reciprocity  with  Cuba 
became  an  accomplished  fact. 

Roosevelt  had  been  in  office  only  a  little  over  a  year 
when  there  came  a  clear-cut  opportunity  for  the  appli 
cation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

In  1896  the  Government  of  Venezuela  had  borrowed 
nine  and  a  half  million  dollars  from  a  German  bank  for 
the  building  of  a  railroad.  When  most  of  the  interest  on 
this  sum  remained  unpaid  in  1901,  the  German  Govern 
ment  took  up  the  cudgels  in  behalf  of  the  bank.  A  demand 
was  made  upon  Venezuela  for  the  payment  of  the  interest, 
together  with  damages  for  losses  sustained  by  German 
settlers  during  the  Venezuelan  Revolution  of  1898.  Pres 
ident  Castro  procrastinated  as  long  as  possible.  Finally 
the  Germans  decided  to  establish  what  they  called  a 
"pacific  blockade."  In  this  they  were  backed  rather  half 
heartedly  by  Great  Britain,  who  was  pressing  for  the 
payment  of  claims  due  to  British  subjects  amounting 
to  about  a  million  and  a  half  dollars.  John  Hay,  Roose 
velt's  Secretary  of  State,  spent  a  year  in  trying  to  persuade 
the  blockaders  that  they  were  unjustifiably  interfering 
with  the  rights  of  neutral  nations.  He  also  suggested 
arbitration.  But  Germany  was  anxious  to  push  matters 
to  the  limit  and  to  make  use  of  her  new  navy.  On  Decem 
ber  8,  1902,  both  Germany  and  Great  Britain  severed 
diplomatic  relations  with  Venezuela  and  on  the  next  day 
sunk  three  Venezuelan  warships  just  off  the  coast  of  that 
country.  Four  days  later  they  bombarded  and  reduced 
to  pulp  the  small  fort  of  Puerto  Cabello. 

Roosevelt  felt  that  the  situation  was  serious.  He  knew 
that  the  British  would  be  willing  to  arbitrate  and  that 
the  real  aggressor  was  Germany.  He  accordingly  sent 
for  the  German  Ambassador,  Dr.  Holleben,  and  told  him 


THE  FIRST  TERM 

that  unless  Germany  consented  to  arbitrate,  Admiral 
Dewey  with  the  American  squadron  would  be  sent,  ten 
days  later,  to  the  Venezuelan  coast  to  prevent  the  taking 
of  Venezuelan  territory  by  Germany.  Dr.  Holleben  began 
to  argue  the  question  but  the  President  explained  that 
the  time  for  argument  was  past.  The  German  Ambas 
sador  left,  and  for  a  week  nothing  happened.  Then  Dr. 
Holleben  called  on  the  President  again  but  said  nothing 
about  the  Venezuelan  matter.  As  he  started  to  leave 
Roosevelt  stopped  him  and  asked  him  whether  he  had 
heard  anything  from  his  government.  He  said  that  he 
had  not.  "Then,"  said  Roosevelt,  "I  shall  instruct 
Admiral  Dewey  to  sail  one  day  earlier  than  I  had 
originally  intended."  This  brought  the  Ambassador  to 
earth  very  quickly.  The  President  explained  that  no  one 
knew  of  his  former  message  to  the  Kaiser,  that  no  one 
need  know  about  it,  and  that  the  Kaiser  would  receive 
full  credit  if  he  consented  to  arbitrate.  Thirty-six  hours 
later  Dr.  Holleben  returned  to  say  that  the  Kaiser  would 
be  glad  to  submit  to  arbitration.  Both  Great  Britain  and 
Germany  united,  on  December  20th,  in  asking  the 
President  to  act  as  sole  arbitrator.  But  he  induced  them 
to  refer  their  dispute  to  the  Hague  Tribunal  and  fulfilled 
his  promise  to  Dr.  Holleben  by  complimenting  the  Kaiser 
on  his  support  of  the  cause  of  international  arbitration. 

The  account  of  the  President's  interviews  with  Dr. 
Holleben  was  not  made  public  until  years  afterwards, 
when  friendly  relations  between  the  two  countries  had 
ceased.  When  the  European  squadron  of  the  United 
States  Navy  visited  Kiel  in  June,  1903,  we  may  readily 
imagine  the  amusement  with  which  Roosevelt  must  have 
read  Emperor  William's  speech  expressing  warm  sentiments 
of  friendship  for  himself  and  for  the  American  people. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  the  affair  of  Santo  Domingo  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
was  again  called  into  operation.  Santo  Domingo  was 
always  in  a  chronic  state  of  revolution.  It  was  the  prac 
tice  of  the  revolutionaries  to  seize  the  ports  with  their 
custom  houses  and  to  pledge  future  import  duties  as 
security  for  loans  made  to  them  by  European  powers. 
This  kind  of  high  finance  had  utterly  demoralized  the 
island.  On  one  occasion  there  were  for  some  weeks  two 
simultaneous  rival  governments,  against  each  of  which  a 
revolution  was  being  carried  on.  For  part  of  this  time  one 
of  the  governments  was  quartered  at  sea  in  a  small  gun 
boat  wrhile  still  claiming  the  attributes  of  sovereignty. 

By  September,  1904,  Santo  Domingo's  total  debt  was 
over  thirty -two  million  dollars,  and  she  had  in  sight  an 
income  of  only  half  a  million  with  which  to  meet,  during 
the  coming  year,  charges  of  five  times  that  sum.  Most  of 
this  money  had  been  borrowed  from  European  creditors, 
whose  governments  threatened  to  force  repayment  of  the 
loans.  There  were  two  ways  to  do  this — one  was  to 
establish  a  "pacific  blockade,"  which  is  on  its  face  an 
absurd  contradiction  in  terms,  while  the  other  was  to 
seize  and  conduct  the  custom  house  and  to  apply  the 
duties  thus  collected  to  the  payment  of  the  debt.  The 
United  States  had  assumed  a  position  with  regard  to  the 
smaller  American  republics  which  made  it  impossible  to 
permit  any  such  seizure  as  that  suggested.  Roosevelt 
accordingly  arranged  on  his  own  account  with  the  de 
facto  Government  of  Santo  Domingo,  that  the  United 
States  should  collect  the  duties  and  should  pay  forty- 
five  per  cent  of  them  to  Santo  Domingo,  and  fifty-five 
per  cent  to  the  various  creditors.  The  carrying  out  of 
this  arrangement  was  of  course  to  be  insured  by  the 
necessary  protection  of  American  armed  forces.  The 


THE  FIRST  TERM  213 

Senate  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty  which  embodied  this 
agreement;  but  the  President  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
his  object  nevertheless.  The  President  of  Santo  Domingo 
named  a  Receiver  of  Customs  suggested  to  him  by 
President  Roosevelt,  and  this  Receiver  collected  duties 
under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  Navy,  which  of 
course  acted  in  the  matter  under  the  orders  of  the  Pres 
ident  as  its  Commander-in-Chief.  The  Senate,  realizing 
that  the  President  had  got  the  better  of  them,  finally,  on 
February  25,  1907,  ratified  a  treaty  with  Santo  Domingo 
which  substantially  accomplished  the  purpose  which 
Roosevelt  had  in  mind.  As  a  result,  the  creditors  began  to 
receive  their  money,  and  the  Santo  Domingans  received 
more  from  their  forty -five  per  cent  share  than  they  had 
received  in  the  old  days  when  all  of  the  duties  went  to 
them  direct. 

In  speaking  of  this  matter  shortly  before  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  treaty  by  the  Senate,  the  President  said:  "I 
was  immensely  amused  when  at  a  professional  peace 
meeting  the  other  day  they  incidentally  alluded  to  me  as 
having  'made  war'  on  Santo  Domingo.  I  feel  like 
paraphrasing  Patrick  Henry:  'if  that  is  war,  make  the 
most  of  it.'  The  war  I  have  made  literally  consists  in 
having  loaned  them  a  Collector  of  Customs  at  their 
request." 

In  the  summer  of  1903,  a  rumor  reached  Washington 
that  Magelssen,  the  United  States  Vice-Consul  at  Beirut, 
Syria,  had  been  assassinated.  The  President  immediately 
ordered  the  European  squadron  to  proceed  to  Beirut. 
The  promptness  of  this  action  caused  considerable  aston 
ishment  at  the  time;  but  the  basis  of  his  judgment  was 
sound.  Had  the  rumor  come  from  a  civilized  country  he 
could  have  secured  an  immediate  report  of  the  situation 


214  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

through  diplomatic  channels,  but-  he  knew  that  weeks 
would  elapse  before  any  information  could  be  elicited 
from  the  Turkish  authorities,  and  he  rightly  reasoned 
that  nothing  would  instil  a  desire  for  fairness  so  quickly 
in  the  Turkish  heart  as  the  appearance  of  United  States 
men-of-war.  Fortunately,  the  rumor  appeared  to  have 
been  without  foundation,  but  the  discovery  of  this  fact 
was  no  doubt  due  in  large  measure  to  the  promptness  with 
which  the  President  had  indicated  his  determination  to 
press  matters  to  a  conclusion  if  necessary. 

Under  Roosevelt's  administration  the  cause  of  arbi 
tration  flourished.  The  case  of  the  United  States  against 
Mexico  in  1902  was  the  first  case  ever  referred  to  the 
Hague  Tribunal.  This  involved  a  dispute  over  the  Pious 
Fund  of  the  Calif ornias — a  trust  fund  started  by  the 
Jesuits  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  the  conversion  of 
the  California  Indians,  which  had  been  administered  at 
one  time  by  the  King  of  Spain,  and  later  by  the  Govern 
ment  of  Mexico.  After  the  purchase  of  the  State  of  Cali 
fornia  by  the  United  States  in  1848,  Mexico  had  failed  to 
pay  the  Catholic  bishops  of  California  their  share  of  the 
interest  of  the  trust  fund.  The  Hague  Court  decided  in 
favor  of  the  American  bishops,  awarding  them  a  large 
sum  of  accrued  interest,  together  with  a  future  annuity 
of  about  $40,000. 

It  was  during  this  period  too,  that  the  Alaskan  Bound 
ary  question  was  submitted  to  a  mixed  British  and 
American  Commission,  and  was  thus  finally  settled  to  the 
satisfaction  of  both  disputants.  There  were  also  concluded 
with  Great  Britain  and  with  most  of  the  other  great 
nations,  arbitration  treaties  specifically  agreeing  to  arbi 
trate  all  matters  except  questions  affecting  territorial 
integrity,  national  honor  and  vital  national  interest. 


THE  FIRST  TERM  215 

Roosevelt's  position  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  arbitration 
was  clear.  He  was  anxious  to  avoid  hostilities  wherever 
possible  and  to  increase  the  power  and  prestige  of  the 
Hague  Tribunal,  but  he  stated  emphatically  his  disbelief 
in  "making  universal  arbitration  treaties  which  neither 
the  makers,  nor  any  one  else,  would  for  a  moment  dream 
of  keeping."  In  this,  as  in  all  other  things,  he  faced  the 
facts  and  strove  only  for  what  he  called  "realizable 
ideals." 

By  far  the  most  important  matter  affecting  our 
international  relations  during  Roosevelt's  administration 
was  the  series  of  events  leading  up  to  the  digging  of  the 
Panama  Canal.  These  events  are,  in  themselves,  so 
interesting  and  have  exercised  such  a  profound  influence 
upon  the  history  of  this  country,  that  they  are  treated  of 
separately  in  the  chapter  which  follows. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

WE  owe  to  Theodore  Roosevelt  the  Panama 
Canal.  The  statement  that  he  built  it  after 
four  hundred  years  of  conversation  is  almost 
literally  true.  In  his  speech  at  the  University  of  California 
on  March  23,  1911,  he  said:  "I  am  interested  in  the 
Panama  Canal  because  I  started  it.  If  I  had  followed 
traditional,  conservative  methods,  I  should  have  sub 
mitted  a  dignified  state  paper  of  probably  two  hundred 
pages  to  the  Congress,  and  the  debate  would  have  been 
going  on  yet.  But  I  took  the  Canal  Zone,  and  let  Congress 
debate,  and  while  the  debate  goes  on  the  canal  does  also." 

The  canal  is  the  greatest  tangible  result  of  his  Presi 
dency.  He  accomplished  his  purpose  because  he  was 
intensely  interested  in  having  the  canal  built;  because  he 
beat  down  the  powerful  opposition  to  the  construction 
of  any  canal;  and,  above  all,  because,  faced  with  a  diffi 
cult  and  complicated  situation,  he  was  willing  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  positive  action. 

His  instant  recognition  of  the  Republic  of  Panama, 
and  his  use  of  the  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  to 
prevent  Colombia  from  landing  troops  to  quell  the 
rebellion  has  been  the  subject  of  much  adverse  criticism. 
There  is  now  pending  in  the  Senate  a  treaty  negotiated 
between  the  present  administration  and  Colombia  which 
virtually  recognizes  that  the  action  taken  by  the  United 
States  under  the  direction  of  President  Roosevelt  was  not 
justifiable.  Roosevelt  himself  never  doubted  the  moral 

tat) 


a  modification   of   the 
,fayton-Bulwer    Treaty.     In    his    first    term    President 


under  tne  uirection  ui  ^ . 
justifiable.    Roosevelt  himself  never  doubted  trie  mor 

(218) 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  217 

justification  for  his  act.  Indeed,  he  would  have  regarded 
any  other  course  than  the  one  he  took  as  essentially 
immoral. 

The  issue  can  be  shortly  stated:  Had  the  Republic  of 
Colombia  so  acted  toward  the  people  of  Panama  and  the 
United  States  as  to  justify  the  United  States  in  instantly 
recognizing  the  revolutionary  government  of  Panama 
as  the  de  facto  government  of  the  Isthmus?  I  recognize 
that  many  publicists  and  authorities  on  international  law 
answer  this  question  in  the  negative.  Personally  I  believe 
that  President  Roosevelt  and  his  great  Secretary  of  State, 
John  Hay,  were  right. 

By  the  Treaty  of  1846  with  New  Grenada,  the  country 
then  in  control  of  the  Isthmus,  the  United  States  was 
guaranteed  free  and  open  right  of  way  across  the  Isthmus 
by  any  mode  of  communication.  In  return,  the  United 
States  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  Panama  with  a  view 
of  preserving  free  transit.  Furthermore,  the  United  States 
guaranteed  the  sovereignty  of  New  Grenada  over  the 
Isthmus,  this  last  and  important  clause  being  to  protect 
this  important  strip  of  territory  from  the  encroachments 
of  any  foreign  power,  especially  Great  Britain. 

In  1850  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  entered 
into  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty.  This  treaty  provided 
for  a  canal  to  be  constructed  by  a  private  corporation 
under  the  political  control  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  and  of  such  other  powers  as  they  might  unite  with 
them.  On  the  organization  of  the  French  Company  by 
De  Lesseps,  President  Hayes  took  the  position  that  any 
canal  across  the  Isthmus  should  be  under  the  control  of 
the  United  States,  and  Secretaries  Elaine  and  Freling- 
huysen  made  efforts  to  secure  a  modification  of  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty.  In  his  first  term  President 


218  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Cleveland  reverted  to  the  policy  gf  a  neutralized  canal 
under  international  guarantee.  During  Cleveland's  second 
administration,  however,  Olney,  as  Secretary  of  State, 
declared  that  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty  of  1850  should 
be  modified  and  that  a  direct  appeal  should  be  made  to 
Great  Britain  for  a  reconsideration  of  the  whole  matter. 
When  McKinley  made  Hay  Secretary  of  State,  that 
statesman  negotiated  with  Great  Britain  what  is  known 
as  the  original  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty.  This  treaty,  as 
drafted,  gave  the  United  States  the  right  to  construct  and 
maintain  the  canal,  but  would  have  obliged  the  United 
States,  even  in  case  of  war,  to  allow  the  canal  to  be  used 
by  the  fleets  of  an  enemy.  It  also  practically  invited 
foreign  powers  to  join  with  this  country  in  guaranteeing 
the  neutrality  of  the  canal.  At  the  time  this  treaty  was 
negotiated  and  sent  to  the  Senate,  Roosevelt  was  Governor 
of  New  York.  He  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Secretary  Hay, 
protesting  against  these  two  features  of  the  proposed 
treaty.  The  Senate  amended  the  treaty  and  the  British 
Government  refused  to  accept  the  amendments.  Hay, 
however,  then  succeeded  in  negotiating  the  famous  Hay- 
Pauncefote  Treaty  which  was  transmitted  to  the  Senate 
by  President  Roosevelt  on  December  5,  1901,  and  ratified 
by  that  body  on  December  16th.  It  provided  that  the 
United  States  alone  should  build  the  canal  and  assume 
the  responsibility  of  neutralizing  and  safeguarding  it.  The 
Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty  left  the  United  States  free  to 
build  the  canal,  provided  we  could  come  to  an  arrange 
ment  with  the  country  which  owned  the  territory  through 
which  the  canal  would  pass. 

For  some  time  two  possible  routes  had  been  under 
consideration,  one  through  Nicaragua,  the  other  through 
the  Isthmus  at  Panama.  A  commission,  under  Admiral 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  219 

Walker,  had  made  an  exhaustive  examination  of  the 
subject  and  reported  in  favor  of  the  Nicaraguan  route. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  the  commission  had  reported 
that  the  value  of  the  French  Panama  Canal  Company's 
property  and  rights  on  the  Isthmus  was  only  $40,000,000, 
and  not  $109,000,000  which  was  the  company's  own 
estimate.  In  January,  1902,  the  House  of  Representatives 
passed  a  bill  directing  the  construction  of  the  canal  by 
the  Nicaraguan  route.  The  French  Panama  Canal 
Company,  however,  signified  that  they  would  accept 
$40,000,000  for  their  property  and  rights.  The  Senate 
amended  the  bill  so  as  to  provide  for  the  purchase  of  the 
French  Panama  Canal  Company's  rights  for  $40,000,000, 
the  acquisition  from  Colombia,  at  a  fair*  price,  of  a  strip 
six  miles  wide  across  the  Isthmus,  and  the  construction 
of  the  canal  by  the  Panama  route.  As  amended,  the  bill 
became  a  law  on  June  28,  1902. 

All  that  remained,  therefore,  was  to  negotiate  a  treaty 
with  Colombia.  At  the  time,  the  government  of  Colombia 
was  centered  in  the  person  of  Vice-President  Maroquin, 
who  was  acting  as  absolute  dictator.  This  worthy,  on 
July  31,  1900,  had  seized  the  person  of  President  San- 
clamente,  had  imprisoned  him  a  few  miles  from  the 
capital,  and  had  then  declared  himself  possessed  of 
supreme  executive  authority  because  of  the  absence  of  the 
President  from  the  capital.  Furthermore,  on  the  ground 
that  public  order  was  disturbed,  as  it  certainly  was,  because 
he  had  disturbed  it,  he  assumed  to  himself  all  legislative 
power. 

His  representative  in  Washington  was  Dr.  Herran, 
the  Charge  d' Affaires  of  the  Colombia  Legation.  After 
several  months  of  bargaining,  Secretary  Hay  and  Dr. 
Herran  succeeded  in  negotiating  the  Hay -Herran  Treaty, 


220  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

which  was  reported  to  the  Senate  on  January  27,  1903, 
and  ratified  by  that  body  on  March  27th.  Under  the 
terms  of  this  treaty  Colombia  was  to  receive  $10,000,000 
for  a  strip  of  territory  across  the  Isthmus  six  miles  wide. 
The  United  States  further  obligated  itself,  after  nine  years, 
to  pay  Colombia  $250,000.00  annually.  Having  been 
signed  by  Dr.  Herran,  Maroquin's  representative,  it  is 
inconceivable  that  Maroquin  did  not  know  and  acquiesce 
in  the  terms  of  the  treaty.  The  dictator,  however, 
determined  to  go  back  on  his  bargain.  He  first  tried  to 
force  the  French  Panama  Company  to  pay  him  $10,000,- 
000  out  of  the  $40,000,000  which  they  were  to  receive 
from  the  United  States.  This  the  company  refused  to  do. 

Thereupon  Maroquin  and  his  friends  concocted  an 
other  scheme  which  they  believed  would  net  them  still 
larger  returns.  The  original  grant  to  the  Panama  Com 
pany  was  to  have  expired  in  1904.  The  rights  of  the 
company,  however,  had  been  extended  to  1910.  The  new 
plan  of  this  precious  lot  of  Bogotan  brigands  was  to 
declare  the  extension  of  the  Panama  Company's  rights 
void.  As  a  result,  in  1904  all  the  rights  of  the  Panama 
Company  would  vest  in  Colombia,  and  they  believed  they 
would  thereby  obtain  not  only  the  $10,000,000  promised 
by  the  United  States,  and  anything  more  that  they  could 
induce  the  United  States  to  pay,  but  the  $40,000,000  which 
the  United  States  was  willing  to  pay  the  Panama  Com 
pany.  In  order  to  carry  out  this  plan,  the  Colombian 
Senate,  consisting  entirely  of  puppets  of  Maroquin,  was 
called  together.  This  body  unanimously  rejected  the 
Hay-Herran  Treaty  on  August  12,  1903. 

If  any  one  has  any  doubt  of  the  statement  that  the 
Colombian  Senators  were  merely  puppets  of  Maroquin, 
that  doubt  should  be  dispelled  by  what  happened  sub- 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL 

sequent ly.  After  the  Panama  revolution  was  an  accom 
plished  fact,  Maroquin,  through  a  prominent  Colombian 
then  in  Washington,  suggested  that  if  the  United  States 

(would  land  troops  to  preserve  Colombian  sovereignty  on 
the  Isthmus,  he  would  declare  martial  law,  and  by  virtue 
of  the  constitutional  authority  vested  in  him  when  public 
order  was  disturbed,  would  approve  the  ratification  of  the 
Hay-Herran  Treaty  by  his  own  decree  or: — "If  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  prefers,  we  will  call 
an  extra  session  of  Congress — with  new  and  friendly  mem 
bers — next  May  to  approve  the  treaty." 

The  rejection  of  the  treaty  as  the  first  step  to  secure 
to  Colombia  the  $40,000,000  promised  to  the  Canal 
Company,  while  doubtless  highly  satisfactory  to  Maroquin 
and  his  coterie  at  Bogota,  was  not  at  all  satisfactory  to  the 
people  of  Panama.  At  one  time  Panama  had  been  inde 
pendent.  Prior  to  1886,  she  had  had  self-government 
under  Colombia,  but  since  that  time  she  had  been  gov 
erned  directly  from  Bogota,  that  capital  being  situated 
fifteen  days'  journey  from  the  city  of  Panama. 

The  history  of  Panama  during  the  previous  fifty- 
seven  years,  ever  since  the  Treaty  of  1846  with  New 
Grenada,  had  been  one  long  series  of  disturbances  and 
revolutions.  In  his  message  of  December  7,  1903,  Roose 
velt  detailed  fifty-three  revolutions,  rebellions,  insurrec 
tions,  riots  and  outbreaks.  These  disturbances,  instead 
of  tending  to  decrease,  were  apparently  on  the  increase. 
Throughout  this  period,  the  United  States  constantly 
had  to  interfere  to  preserve  order,  protect  her  own  interests 
in  the  railroad  on  the  Isthmus  and  preserve  Colombian 
authority.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  armed  protection  of 
the  United  States,  it  is  probable  that  Colombia  would 
have  lost  control  over  the  Isthmus  years  before.  Roosevelt 


222  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

himself  writes  that— "in  1856,  in  1860,  in  1873,  in  1885, 
hi  1901  and  again  in  1902,  sailors  and  marines  from  the 
United  States  war  ships  were  forced  to  land  in  order  to 
patrol  the  Isthmus,  to  protect  life  and  property  and  to  see 
that  the  transit  across  the  Isthmus  was  kept  open."  No 
less  than  four  times  between  1861  and  1900  the  Colombian 
Government  had  asked  the  United  States  Government 
to  land  troops  to  protect  Colombia's  interests  and  main 
tain  order. 

The  rejection  of  the  Hay-Herran  Treaty  by  Maroquin 
placed  the  following  alternatives  before  the  United  States  : 

1.  Accept  the  situation  and  continue  conversations 
with  Maroquin,  or  turn  again  to  the  Nicaraguan  route. 

2.  Carry  out  the  terms  of  the  Hay-Herran  Treaty  by 
seizing  the  strip  across  the  Isthmus  ceded  by  the  treaty, 
and  proceed  to  construct  the  canal. 

3.  Encourage  a  revolution  on  the  Isthmus. 
Roosevelt  believed  that  the  third  course  was  immoral 

and  therefore  unthinkable.  If  a  revolution  came,  well  and 
good,  but  the  United  States  could  be  no  party  to  its 
encouragement.  On  October  10th  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Albert 
Shaw,  of  the  Review  of  Reviews:  "I  cast  aside  the 
proposition  at  this  time  to  foment  the  secession  of  Panama. 
Whatever  other  governments  can  do,  the  United  States 
can  not  go  into  the  securing,  by  such  underhand  means, 
the  cession.  Privately  I  freely  say  to  you  that  I  should  be 
delighted  if  Panama  were  an  independent  state,  or  if  it 
made  itself  so  at  this  moment;  but  for  me  to  say  so 
publicly  would  amount  to  an  instigation  of  a  revolt, 
and  therefore  I  can  not  say  it." 

The  first  course  appealed  to  him  as  also  immoral, 
though  the  immorality  was  of  a  different  kind — the 
shirking  of  a  moral  obligation.  The  world  needed  a  canal 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  223 

across  the  Isthmus.  The  United  States  had  taken  the 
position  that  she  would  not  allow  other  nations  to  build 
the  canal;  therefore  she  was  under  obligation  to  build 
it  herself.  Colombia,  while  unquestionably  possessing 
the  sovereignty  over  the  Isthmus,  not  being  financially 
able  to  build  the  canal,  was  not  merely  morally,  but, 
under  international  law,  legally  obliged  to  let  the  United 
States  build  the  canal,  provided  the  United  States 
offered  her  fair  terms.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that 
sovereignty  has  its  limitations;  no  nation,  merely  because 
it  is  sovereign  over  a  specific  territory  can  permanently 
prevent  that  territory  from  being  used  in  a  manner 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  all  nations.  Furthermore,  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  had  actually  made  with 
the  only  government  existing  in  Colombia,  the  Dictator 
Marpquin,  a  treaty,  and  the  dictator  had  repudiated 
that  treaty.  Finally,  the  people  of  the  Isthmus  were  a 
unit  in  wanting  the  United  States  to  act.  To  adopt  the 
first  course  would  have  been  to  indefinitely  postpone  the 
construction  of  the  canal  and  therefore  to  have  shirked  a 
positive  moral  duty  resting  on  this  country.  To  continue 
to  negotiate  with  Colombia  was  for  the  United  States 
to  allow  herself  to  be  blackmailed  into  paying  an  un 
reasonable  price  for  the  privilege  of  constructing  the 
canal.  Even  if  such  a  course  was  thinkable,  any  further 
negotiation  with  Colombia  would  have  placed  the  United 
States  in  the  position  of  countenancing  Maroquin's 
attempt  to  delay  matters  until  he  had  an  excuse  to  con 
fiscate  the  rights  of  the  French  Company — a  proceeding 
which  would  have  involved  us  with  France. 

Roosevelt's  great  quality  as  an  executive  was  that  he 
never  hesitated  to  take  positive  action  if  he  believed  such 
action  right.  He  had  no  doubt  that  the  second  course 


224  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

above  outlined  was  the  correct  course  to  take,  and  he 
therefore  drafted  a  message  to  Congress  in  which  he 
advocated  seizing  the  Isthmus  and  constructing  the  canal. 

Events,  however,  rendered  such  a  course  of  action 
unnecessary.  The  Panamanians,  to  a  man,  wanted  the 
canal.  They  also  wanted  to  sever  their  connections  with 
Colombia.  They  were  tired  of  being  a  milch  cow  for  the 
Bogotan  politicians.  Through  the  summer  of  1903  the 
papers  were  constantly  representing  this  feeling.  Revolu 
tion  was  generally  and  openly  spoken  of  on  the  Isthmus. 
Roosevelt  was  of  course  aware  of  this  sentiment.  On  the 
16th  of  October,  Captain  Humphrey  and  Lieutenant 
Murphy  returned  from  Panama  and  reported  to  the 
President  that  a  revolution  would  certainly  occur,  at  the 
end  of  October,  after  the  Colombian  Senate  had  adjourned 
and  the  last  hope  for  reconsideration  and  ratification  of  the 
treaty  had  disappeared.  Upon  receipt  of  this  report 
Roosevelt  immediately  ordered  American  ships  to  proceed 
to  the  Isthmus. 

No  revolution  in  South  America  or  elsewhere  can  be 
organized  without  money.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the 
Panama  Canal  Company  supplied  the  necessary  funds, 
but  they  certainly  had  every  incentive.  They  stood  to 
lose  $40,000,000  and  the  confiscation  of  all  their  property 
on  the  Isthmus  if  the  Colombian  Government  continued 
its  control  over  Panama.  M.  Philippe  Bunau-Varilla,  a 
Frenchman  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the  old  Pan 
ama  Canal  Company,  and  who  was  a  resident  of  the 
Isthmus,  turned  up  in  Washington  on  October  10th, 
having  recently  arrived  from  Paris.  He  saw  the  President 
and  Secretary  Hay  and  told  them,  as  he  told  every  one 
else,  that  a  revolution  was  certain  in  Panama.  He  went 
so  far  as  to  predict  the  definite  date,  November  3d;  and 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL 

on  November  3d  the  revolution  came  off  as  predicted. 
It  was  almost  entirely  bloodless,  the  total  casualties  being 
one  Chinaman  and  one  dog  killed. 

The  President  on  November  2d  had  ordered  the 
Nashville,  the  Boston  and  the  Dixie  to  keep  the  transit 
across  the  Isthmus  free  by  preventing  the  landing  of  any 
armed  forces  at  any  point  within  fifty  miles  of  Panama. 
A  similar  order  had  been  given  on  other  occasions  when 
revolutions  were  imminent.  Everybody  in  the  Isthmus, 
including  all  the  Colombian  troops  that  were  stationed 
there,  joined  the  revolution. 

On  the  6th,  the  United  States  recognized  the  new 
republic.  A  few  days  later  M.  Bunau-Varilla  arrived  in 
Washington  as  the  accredited  representative  of  the  State 
of  Panama,  and  on  the  19th  of  November  Hay  had  the 
satisfaction  of  writing  to  his  daughter  that  after  days  and 
nights  of  strenuous  work  he  had  just  signed  a  treaty  with 
the  new  state,  which  gave  the  United  States  full  power  to 
proceed  to  construct  the  canal. 

The  order  prohibiting  the  landing  of  Colombian  troops 
within  fifty  miles  of  Panama,  though,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  not  a  novel  order,  followed  as  it  was  by  the  unpar 
alleled  quickness  with  which  Roosevelt  recognized  the  new 
republic,  naturally  created  the  impression  among  those 
who  knew  nothing  of  conditions  on  the  Isthmus  that  the 
United  States  had  instigated  the  revolution.  The  assump 
tion,  however,  did  not  rest  on  any  basis  of  fact.  All  we 
did  was  to  use  our  police  power  under  the  Treaty  of 
1846  to  prevent  general  bloodshed  on  the  Isthmus,  and 
to  refrain  from  using  our  forces,  as  we  had  done  in 
previous  revolutions,  to  uphold  Colombian  sovereignty. 

The  President,  by  his  immediate  negotiation  of  a 
treaty  with  the  new  state,  giving  the  United  States  the 

15 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

right  to  acquire  the  necessary  territory  and  construct  the 
canal,  not  only  insured  the  continued  independence  of  the 
new  State  of  Panama  in  accordance  with  the  unanimous 
wish  of  its  people,  but  also  prevented  the  reopening  of  the 
whole  canal  question  by  the  Congress  which  met  on  the 
first  Monday  of  December,  1903.  Had  the  President 
refused  to  see  that  a  revolution  was  about  to  take  place, 
and  refrained  from  sending  American  warships  to  the 
Isthmus  to  protect  American  interests,  had  he  allowed 
the  Colombians  and  Panamanians  to  fight  out  their 
differences  on  the  Isthmus,  or  had  he  hesitated  until  after 
the  meeting  of  Congress  in  December  to  recognize  the  new 
government  or  negotiate  a  new  treaty  with  their  repre 
sentative,  M.  Bunau-Varilla,  then,  at  the  time  of  Amer 
ica's  entry  into  the  World  War,  there  would  have  been  no 
interoceanic  canal.  The  end  never  justifies  the  means; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  great  and  beneficent  result  is  not 
proof  that  the  action  which  made  it  possible  was  wrong. 
In  the  words  of  Secretary  Hay:  "It  was  the  time  to  act, 
and  not  to  theorize."  I  can  see  the  point  of  view  of  those 
who  say  that  we  would  have  had  no  right  to  take  the 
Isthmus  by  force,  as  Roosevelt  was  prepared  to  recom 
mend.  But  we  did  not  take  it  by  force.  I  can  see  the 
reason  for  those  who  condemn  Roosevelt's  action,  believ 
ing  that  he  fomented  a  revolution.  But  this  criticism 
arises  from  a  misapprehension  of  the  real  facts.  He  did 
not  foment  a  revolution;  indeed,  he  could  not  have  pre 
vented  a  revolution,  unless,  possibly,  he  had  publicly 
announced  the  intention  of  the  United  States  to  use 
its  armed  forces  to  assist  Colombia — an  announcement 
which  would  not  have  had  the  slightest  justification  on 
any  ground,  moral  or  practical.  Taking  what  he  actually 
did  under  the  facts  as  they  actually  were,  "from  begin- 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  227 

ning  to  the  end,  our  course  was  straightforward  and  in 
absolute  accord  with  the  highest  standards  of  international 
morality."  / 

On  the  ratification  by  ^he  Unjfted  States  Senate  of  the 
treaty  with  the  Republic  if  Panama,  the  last  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  the  construction  of  the  canal  was  removed. 
The  President  promptly  summoned  a  board  of  engineers 
to  report  on  the  type  of  carial  to  be  built — sea-level  or 
lock.  A  majority  of  the  board,  including  all  the  foreign 
members,  recommended  the  construction  of  a  sea-level 
canal.  The  majority  of  the  American  engineers,  however, 
favored  a  lock  canal.  Roosevelt  was  not  a  man  to  decide  a 
question  by  majorities,  or  to  delay  construction  further 
by  continuing  the  discussion  through  the  appointment 
of  another  commission.  He  carefully,  but  promptly, 
analyzed  the  reasons  for  and  against  each  type  of  canal, 
and  made  up  his  own  mind  in  favor  of  the  existing  lock 
type.  He  then  placed  the  reasons  for  his  conclusion  so 
fully  and  fairly  before  the  public  that  the  American 
people  practically  unanimously  accepted  his  decision  as 
wise.  From  then  on  until  the  end  of  his  Presidency 
literally  night  and  day  he  ceased  not  to  urge  on  the  work. 

It  wras  first  necessary  to  make  the  Canal  Zone  habitable 
by  exterminating  the  mosquito,  the  carrier  of  yellow 
fever.  This  work  was  performed  most  efficiently  by  Dr. 
Gorgas.  Congress  had  provided  that  the  canal  should  be 
constructed  under  the  supervision  of  a  commission.  At 
first  Roosevelt  tried  to  have  the  work  done  by  the  hydra- 
headed  body  which  Congress  had  in  mind.  At  first  also 
he  appointed  engineers  with  experience  in  constructing 
large  works  for  private  corporations.  When,  however, 
he  finally  appointed  Colonel  Goethals  as  chief  engineer, 
he  knew  within  a  short  time  that  he  had  made  the  last 


228  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

change.  A  good  executive  knows  when  ne  finds  the  right 
man  for  a  given  place.  Thereafter  the  President  stood 
behind  Colonel  Goethals,  backing  him  up  in  every  possi 
ble  way.  Congress  still  refusing  to  recede  from  its  position 
that  the  canal  should  be  built  by  a  commission,  Roose 
velt  overcame  the  difficulty  by  making  Colonel  Goethals 
chairman,  and  by  an  executive  order  so  enlarged  the 
powers  of  the  chairman  as  to  make  the  other  members 
dependent  upon  him. 

And  so  the  great  work  was  done — not,  indeed,  com 
pleted  in  Roosevelt's  administration,  buJLte^un,  and  well 
started  before  his  term  of  office  came  to  an  erra.  He  had, 
by  his  energy,  courage  and  correct  judgment,  made  it 
possible  for  the  United  States  to 'carry  out  the  greatest 
undertaking  of  its  kind  that  has  ever  been  performed. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904 

ROOSEVELT  had,  naturally,  a  strong  desire  to  be 
nominated  to  succeed  himself.  He-diinot  believe 
in  playing  the  hypocrite.  He  said  frankly  that  he 
wanted  to  be  nominated,  and  that  he  would  be  sorry  if  he 
were  not.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  never  a  moment 
when  his  nomination  by  his  party  was  in  doubt.  He  had 
succeeded  where  Fillmore,  Tyler,  Johnson  and  Arthur  had 
failed.  He  had  carried  out  the  policies  of  McKinley  and 
had  met,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
people,  new  and  grave  problems  as  they  arose.  Whatever 
many  of  the  older  politicians  and  statesmen  of  his  party 
really  thought  of  him,  they  were  wise  enough  to  realize 
that  this  apostle  of  the  strenuous  life,  with  his  many-sided 
activities,  who  had  "the  training  of  a  scholar  and  the 
breezy  accessibility  of  the  ranchman,"  was  immensely 
popular  with  the  public,  and  growing  more  popular  every 
day.  His  nomination  was  more  than  an  act  of  wisdom  on 
the  part  of  the  Republican  party;  it  was  a  necessity. 

A  group  of  big  politicans  and  Wall  Street  men  did 
indeed  meet  to  try  and  organize  a  movement  to  secure 
delegates  to  the  convention  pledged  to  another  candidate, 
and  as  a  result  of  this  meeting,  some  effort  was  made  in 
New  Jersey,  parts  of  the  South  and  of  the  Central  WTest 
as  well  as  California;  but  the  attempt  came  to  nothing. 
Senator  Mark  Hanna  was  supposed  by  many  to  have 
Presidential  aspirations,  or  at  any  rate  to  be  much  opposed 
to  Roosevelt.  But  it  is  probable  that  the  Senator  had  no 

(229) 


230  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

desire  for  the  Presidency  himself,  really  liked  Roosevelt, 
and  was  entirely  willing  that  he  should  be  renominated. 
The  Senator  did  wish  to  be  the  dominating  figure  in  the 
Convention  of  1904,  as  he  had  been  in  that  of  1900,  and 
therefore  desired  that  the  delegates  should  not  be  pledged 
in  advance  to  any  candidate.  The  question  came  to  an 
issue  in  the  Ohio  State  Convention.  Senator  Foraker 
desired  to  have  the  convention  pass  a  resolution 
endorsing  Roosevelt's  administration  and  pledging  the 
state  to  support  him  in  the  Republican  National  Conven 
tion.  Senator  Hanna  opposed  the  resolution,  but  when 
Roosevelt,  then  traveling  in  the  West,  telegraphed  to  the 
effect  that  he  desired  favorable  action  on  the  resolution, 
Senator  Hanna  withdrew  his  opposition. 

Thus,  when  the  Republican  Convention  met  in 
Chicago  in  1904,  the  fact  that  thejr  would  nominate 
Roosevelt  unanimously  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  Elihu 
Root,  as  temporary  chairman,  made!  ar  notable  speech 
in  which  he  set  forth  the  activities  of  the  Roosevelt 
administration  and  challenged  "judgment  upon  this 
record  of  effective  performance."  This  speech  was  the 
keynote  of  the  campaign  that  followed.  The  Republican 
party  asked  the  people  to  endorse  what  Roosevelt  in 
the  three  and  a  half  years  of  his  administration  had 
accomplished. 

The  record  of  things  done  was  not  unworthy.  As 
the  President  himself  said  in  his  address  to  the  Notifica 
tion  Committee,  the  administration  had  never  pleaded 
impotence;  it  had  never  sought  refuge  in  criticism 
and  complaint  instead  of  action.  And,  later,  in  his  letter 
of  acceptance,  he  could  ask  with  pardonable  pride:  "To 
what  phase  of  our  foreign  policy  and  to  what  use  of  the 
Navy  do  our  opponents  object?  Do  they  object  to  the 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  231 

way  in  which  the  Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  strengthened 
and  upheld?  Never  before  has  this  doctrine  been 
acquiesced  in  abroad  as  it  is  now.  .  .  .  While  upholding 
the  rights  of  weaker  American  republics  against  foreign 
aggression,  the  administration  has  lost  no  opportunity  to 
point  out  to  these  nations  that  those  who  seek  equity 
should  come  with  clean  hands,  and  that  whoever  claims 
liberty  as  a  right  must  accept  the  responsibilities  that  go 
with  the  exercise  of  it." 

Just  as  Roosevelt's  nomination  by  his  own  party  was 
a  foregone  conclusion,  so  \fras  his  election.  The  Demo 
cratic  party  at  the  time  was  \orn  by  opposing  radical  and 
conservative  factions.  The  ^majority  of  the  delegates 
came  to  the  National  Convention  at  St.  Louis  determined 
to  repudiate  Bryan,  and  to  re-establish  "a  safe  and  sane 
Democracy."  The  sub-committee  on  Platform  went  so 
far  as  to  recommend  a  plank  declaring  that  the  increase 
in  the  production  of  gold  had  made  the  gold  standard 
satisfactory,  thus  expressly  repudiating  the  main  issue  on 
which,  eight  years  before,  Bryan  had  made  his  first  and 
greatest  fight  for  the  Presidency.  But  Bryan  was  a 
delegate  to  the  convention,  and  his  personal  power  was 
sufficient  to  defeat  the  proposed  plank.  So  Judge  Alton 
B.  Parker,  a  Gold  Democrat,  was  nominated  on  a  plat 
form  which  made  no  reference  to  the  currency.  The 
Democratic  nominee  was  a  conservative,  upright  gentle 
man  without  a  single  attribute  of  aggressive  leadership, 
besides  which  he  had  been  out  of  politics  for  nearly 
twenty  years. 

The  campaign  was  a  humdrum  affair  until  towards  the 
close.  Roosevelt  had  made  George  B.  Cortelyou  his 
campaign  manager.  Mr  Cortelyou  resigned  as  Secretary 
of  Commerce  and  Labor  to  accept  the  position.  Judge 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Parker,  in  a  public  speech  in  New  York  City,  charged  that 
the  President  and  Mr.  Cortelyou  had  entered  into  a 
conspiracy  to  blackmail  corporations  into  making  large 
contributions  to  the  Republican  campaign  fund,  Mr. 
Cortelyou  using  his  knowledge  of  corporate  wrong-doing 
obtained  while  he  was  Secretary  of  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor.  The  President  and  Mr.  Cortelyou 
for  some  days  remained  silent,  but,  on  November  5th, 
Roosevelt  published  a  statement  in  which  he  declared 
that  he  had  chosen  Mr.  Cortelyou  to  manage  his  campaign 
because  he  believed  him  possessed  of  the  highest  integrity; 
that  Mr.  Cortelyou  had  continually  told  him  during  the 
campaign  that  if  elected,  he  would  go  into  the  Presidency 
unhampered  by  any  pledge,  promise  or  understanding  of 
any  kind,  sort  or  description,  and  that  the  statements 
made  by  Judge  Parker  were  "unqualifiedly  and  atro 
ciously  false."  If  the  controversy  had  any  effect  on  the 
election  at  all,  the  effect  was  beneficial  to  the  President. 
Fortunately,  it  is  rarely  wise,  even  from  the  low  standard 
of  getting  votes,  to  charge  your  opponent  with  a  crime, 
unless  you  have  full  and  conclusive  proof  of  your 
accusation. 

In  the  fall  of  1906  there  was  a  slight  recrudescence  of 
Judge  Parker's  charges  which  called  for  another  and  much 
longer  statement  from  the  President.  In  his  statement 
in  reply  to  Judge  Parker,  he  had  not  denied  that  corpo 
rations  had  contributed  to  the  Republican  Campaign 
Fund,  just  as  they  had  contributed  to  the  Democratic 
Campaign  Fund.  Through  the  publication  of  a  letter 
written  by  E.  H.  Harriman,  the  railroad  magnate,  in  the 
New  York  World — though  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the 
publication  was  probably  without  Mr.  Harriman's  con 
sent — it  became  generally  known  that  Harriman  charged 


Photo  from  George  Grantham  Bain,  N.  Y. 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  AND   VICE-PRESIDENT  FAIRBANKS 
The  election  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Charles  W.  Fairbanks  in  1904,  was 
marked  by  the  greatest  popular  majority  ever  recorded,  reaching  a  total  of  about 
2,000,000  votes. 


Photo  from  Wm.  H.  Ran,  Phila. 

TAKING  THE  OATH   OF   OFFICE 

The  inauguration  of  President  Roosevelt  on  March  4,  1905.     Chief  Justice  Fuller, 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  administering  the  oath. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  233 

the  President  with  having  sent  for  him  shortly  before  the 
election  of  1904.  Roosevelt,  he  said,  had  asked  him  to 
raise  a  large  campaign  fund  for  use  in  the  Presidential 
campaign  in  New  York,  and  had  formally  promised  him 
to  appoint  Chauncey  M.  Depew  Ambassador  to  France. 
Mr.  Harriman  further  stated  that  he  had  raised  about 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  that  Roosevelt  had 
refused  to  fulfil  his  promise  to  appoint  Depew. 

Roosevelt  replied  to  the  charges  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Sherman,  afterwards  Vice-President,  Mr.  Harriman, 
having  reiterated  the  charges  to  Sherman.  With  charac 
teristic  fulness  of  detail — setting  forth  all  the  corres 
pondence  between  Harriman  and  himself — Roosevelt 
showed  that  the  financier  had  been  much  interested 
in  the  success  of  the  New  York  Republican  State  ticket, 
headed  by  Mr.  Higgins,  the  candidate  for  Governor; 
that  he,  Roosevelt,  was  anxious  to  see  Harriman  to 
ascertain  whether  there  was  anything  he  could  do  to 
help  Mr.  Higgins,  and  that  so  far  from  promising  to 
appoint  Mr.  Depew  as  Ambassador  to  France,  he  had 
expressly  pointed  out  to  Mr.  Harriman  that  Governor 
Odell,  who  had  been  urging  Mr.  Depew's  appointment, 
was  now  urging  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Hyde,  but  that 
he,  Roosevelt,  did  not  believe  that  he  could  appoint 
either  gentleman. 

The  election  was  held  on  November  8th.  Roosevelt's 
majority  was  about  two  million  and  a  half  out  of  a  total 
of  thirteen  and  a  half  million  votes  cast,  the  largest 
popular  majority  ever  given  for  any  Presidential  candi 
date.  In  the  Electoral  College  he  received  three  hundred 
and  thirty-six  votes  as  against  one  hundred  and  forty  for 
Judge  Parker.  Secretary  Hay  going  over  to  the  White 
House  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  on  the  day  of  the 


234  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

election,  found  that  the  Democratic  candidate  had 
already  sent  his  congratulations.  Indeed,  the  victory 
was  so  overwhelming  that  the  result  was  known  shortly 
after  seven  o'clock.  "I  am  glad,"  Roosevelt  said,  "to  be 
President  in  my  own  right."  A  fact  that  gave  him  even 
more  satisfaction  and  pride  was  that  he  had  been  able 
to  make  the  fight  for  election  on  his  own  clearly-avowed 
principles,  and  on  his  own  record. 

Throughout  the  campaign,  the  Democrats  had  charged 
that  if  elected,  Roosevelt  would  regard  his  first  elected 
term  as  his  first  term,  and  again  seek  re-election  in  the  fall 
of  1908,  thus  trying  to  remain  President  for  eleven  and  a 
half  consecutive  years.  Until  assured  of  his  election,  the 
President  steadily  refused  to  make  any  statement  on 
the  subject.  The  moment  however,  his  re-election  was 
assured  he  issued  the  following  statement: 

"The  wise  custom  which  limits  the  President  to  two 
terms  regards  the  substance  and  not  the  form,  and  under 
no  circumstances  will  I  be  a  candidate  for,  or  accept 
another  nomination." 

He  fulfilled  this  promise  to  the  American  people.  As 
his  second  term  drew  to  a  close,  no  amount  of  pressure 
would  induce  him  for  a  moment  to  consider  the  possibility 
of  his  acceptance  of  a  renomination.  A  careful  reading  of 
the  exact  form  of  words  used  in  his  announcement  shows 
that  on  its  face  it  may  be  interpreted  either  as  a  declara 
tion  that  he  would  not  accept  a  renomination  at  the  end 
of  the  term  for  which  he  had  just  been  elected,  or  as  a 
declaration  that  never  again  throughout  his  life  would  he 
seek  the  Presidential  office.  When  a  public  man  makes  a 
statement  which  on  careful  reading  is  open  to  one  of  two 
interpretations,  his  own  explanation  of  the  meaning  which 
he  intended  is  accepted  by  all  persons  except  those  so 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  235 

twisted  mentally  that  their  normal  instinct  is  to  believe 
every  public  man  a  liar,  or  who  have,  as  respects  the 
particular  public  man  making  the  statement,  a  strong 
antipathy  and  prejudice. 

Roosevelt's  own  explanation  of  his  meaning  and  the 
reasons  for  the  exact  phraseology  used  is  simple  and 
direct.  He  tells  us  that  he  did  not  expressly  say 
that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate  in  1908  because  if  he 
had,  his  statement  would  have  been  instantly  taken  as  a 
declaration  that  he  was,  or  thought  it  likely  that  he  might 
be,  a  candidate  at  some  future  time,  when,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  was  not  thinking,  as  he  said  to  an  inquirer  at  the 
time,  about  1912,  '16  or  '20.  What  he  was  thinking  about 
was  the  fact  that  the  Presidency  is  a  very  great  office; 
that  the  holder  has  power,  if  he  chooses  to  use  it,  to  do 
much  to  effect  his  own  renomination  and  election,  and 
that  the  custom  which  limits  the  holder  to  two  terms  is 
wise.  But  of  course  this  reason  does  not  apply  to  the  man 
who,  having  held  two  terms,  retires  to  private  life.  The 
very  moment  he  is  out  of  office  the  power  which  was  his 
because  he  held  the  office  is  lost. 

The  weather  in  the  early  morning  of  the  4th  of  March, 
1905,  was  threatening,  but  by  the  time  Roosevelt  went 
out  to  the  east  front  of  the  capitol  to  deliver  his  inaugural 
address,  the  sun  shone  brightly.  The  address  was  short, 
but  in  what  he  said,  the  reader  may  find  the  touchstone 
by  which  to  interpret  the  foreign  and  domestic  policies 
of  his  administration,  especially  the  domestic  policies  of 
his  second  term.  After  pointing  out  that  to  us  as  a  Nation 
much  has  been  given,  and  that,  therefore,  much  will 
rightfully  be  required,  he  said: 

"We  have  duties  to  others  and  duties  to  ourselves; 
and  we  can  shirk  neither.  We  have  become  a  great 


236  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Nation,  forced  by  the  fact  of  its  greatness  into  relations 
with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  and  we  must  behave 
as  beseems  a  people  with  such  responsibilities.  .  .  .  While 
ever  careful  to  refrain  from  wronging  others,  we  must 
be  no  less  insistent  that  we  are  not  wronged  ourselves. 
We  wish  peace;  but  we  wish  the  peace  of  justice,  the 
peace  of  righteousness.  WTe  wish  it  because  we  think  it 
is  right,  and  not  because  we  are  afraid.  No  weak  nation 
that  acts  manfully  and  justly  should  ever  have  cause  to 
fear  us,  and  no  strong  power  should  ever  be  able  to  single 
us  out  as  a  subject  for  insolent  aggression." 

Turning  to  our  relations  among  ourselves,  he  pointed 
out  that  our  growth  in  wealth,  in  population  and  in  power 
is  inevitably  accompanied  by  new  problems,  saying: 

"Our  fathers  faced  certain  perils  which  we  have  out 
grown.  We  now  face  other  perils  the  very  existence  of 
which  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  foresee.  Modern 
life  is  both  complex  and  intense,  and  the  tremendous 
changes  wrought  by  the  extraordinary  industrial  develop 
ment  of  the  last  half  century  are  felt  in  every  fiber  of  our 
social  and  political  being.  .  .  .  The  conditions  which 
have  told  for  our  marvelous  material  well-being,  which 
have  developed  to  a  very  high  degree  our  energy,  self- 
reliance,  and  individual  initiative,  have  also  brought  the 
care  and  anxiety  inseparable  from  the  accumulation  of 
great  wealth  in  industrial  centers.  .  .  .  There  is  no  good 
reason  why  we  should  fear  the  future,  but  there  is  every 
reason  why  we  should  face  it  seriously,  neither  hiding 
from  ourselves  the  gravity  of  the  problems  before  us 
nor  fearing  to  approach  these  problems  with  the  un 
bending,  unflinching  purpose  to  solve  them  aright." 

When  he  took  the  oath  of  office  he  wore  a  ring  given 
him  by  John  Hay  containing  a  lock  of  Lincoln's  hair.  Of 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  237 

all  the  gifts  that  he  ever  received,  this  was  the  one  he 
prized  most.  In  the  letter  accompanying  the  ring,  Hay 
said,  referring  to  the  coming  inauguration,  "Please  wear 
it  tomorrow;  you  are  one  of  the  men  who  most  thoroughly 
understands  and  appreciates  Lincoln."  This,  coming 
from  the  man  who  had  been  Lincoln's  Secretary,  meant 
much  to  Roosevelt,  for  of  all  our  public  men,  he  most 
admired  the  martyred  President.  In  the  fullest  sense  of 
the  words  he  did  understand  and  appreciate  Lincoln. 
The  two  men,  so  different  in  external  manner  and  daily 
habit,  were,  after  all,  singularly  alike  in  moral  character 
and  in  their  method  of  approaching  and  solving  public 
questions. 

He  received,  on  his  inauguration,  another  gift  which 
especially  appealed  to  him.  In  a  letter  written  on  June  7, 
1916,  to  Mr.  Herbert  Warren,  of  Magdalen  College 
Oxford,  he  says: 

"In  my  Autobiography  I  did  not  like  to  speak  of  the 
various  presents  given  rne  by  European  sovereigns.  Next 
to  Hay's  gift  of  the  ring  with  the  hair  of  President  Lin 
coln,  the  gift  I  appreciated  most  which  I  received  while 
in  the  White  House  was  from  King  Edward.  It  was  a 
very  beautiful  miniature  of  John  Hampden  sent  me  at  the 
time  of  my  inauguration,  at  the  same  time  that  I  received 
the  ring  from  John  Hay.  It  seemed  to  me  to  mark  King 
Edward's  tact  and  genuine  refinement  of  feeling  that  he 
should  have  chosen  that  precise  gift  for  an  American 
President.' 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PRESIDENT  IN  His  OWN  RIGHT 

ON  February  10, 1904,  war  broke  out  between  Russia 
and  Japan.  Each  had  for  a  long  time  looked  with 
growing  jealousy  upon  the  other's  position  in  the 
Far  East.  Japan  resented  Russia's  presence  in  Manchuria 
and  finally  presented  an  ultimatum  to  Russia  requiring 
her  to  respect  Japanese  rights  in  that  province.  Upon 
Russia's  failure  to  agree  to  the  terms  of  this  ultimatum, 
actual  hostilities  began.  For  a  year  and  a  half  the  war 
was  waged  with  great  violence.  By  the  summer  of 
1905  the  Russians  had  suffered  enormous  losses  of  men 
and  the  destruction  of  almost  their  entire  fleet.  The 
Japanese,  although  they  had  been  more  successful  in 
battle  had,  nevertheless,  been  heavily  punished.  The 
truth  was  that  both  sides  were  near  bankruptcy  and 
exhaustion. 

At  this  crisis  the  President  decided  to  interfere.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  a  continuation  of  the  war  would 
probably  have  resulted  in  Russia's  defeat,  but  there  was 
no  certainty  of  this.  The  one  certain  thing  was  that  t>oth 
nations  would  soon  expend  more  bloqti  ^nd  treasure  than 
any  victory  could  justify.  He  accordingly  suggested 
informally  to  both  Japan  and  Russia  that  he  wrould  be 
glad  to  bring  together  representatives  to  a  peace  confer 
ence.  Having  satisfied  himself  that  both  were  willing  to 
respond  to  a  formal  proposal,  he  sent  them,  on  June  8, 
1905,  an  identical  note.  In  this  note  he  urged  them  "not 
only  for  their  own  sakes  but  in  the  interest  of  the  whole 

(238) 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        239 

civilized  world  to  open  direct  negotiations  for  peace  with 
each  other."  Both  accepted  the  invitation  and  the 
question  of  the  meeting  place  immediately  arose.  Russia 
suggested  Paris,  while  Japan  preferred  Chefu;  each 
objected  to  the  other's  choice  because  each  feared  an 
unfriendly  atmosphere.  At  last  Washington  was  agreed 
upon,  with  the  understanding  that  the  President  would 
furnish  accommodations  in  New  England  if  Washington 
should  prove  too  warm. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  the  proceedings  which 
ensued,  the  President  played  a  leading  part.  In  an 
endeavor  to  smooth  away  as  far  as  possible  the  difficulties 
of  the  coming  discussion,  he  conferred  at  Sagamore  Hill 
with  Baron  Kaneko,  who  represented  the  Mikado,  and 
with  Baron  Rosen,  one  of  the  Russian  envoys.  When 
the  Japanese  envoys  arrived  they  were  entertained  at 
Oyster  Bay,  where  they  were  followed  a  few  days  later 
by  the  Russians.  The  President's  common  sense  and  his 
anxious  desire  to  achieve  an  understanding,  prevented 
questions  of  precedence  from  causing  any  friction.  So  far 
as  possible,  the  representatives  of  both  countries  were 
entertained  and  treated  alike. 

At  last  the  formal  meeting  between  the  plenipotenti 
aries  took  place  on  the  Mayflower  in  Oyster  Bay  on 
August  5th.  The  President  entertained  his  guests  in  the 
vessel's  cabin,  and  with  singular  happiness  of  speech 
proposed  this  toast:  "Gentlemen,  I  propose  a  toast  to 
which  there  will  be  no  answer  and  which  I  ask  you  to 
drink  in  silence,  standing.  I  drink  to  the  welfare  and 
prosperity  of  the  sovereigns  and  the  peoples  of  the  two 
great  nations,  whose  representatives  have  met  one 
another  on  this  ship.  It  is  my  earnest  hope  and  prayer,  in 
the  interest  not  only  of  these  two  great  powers,  but  of  all 


240  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

civilized  mankind,  that  a  just  and  lasting  peace  may 
speedily  be  concluded  between  them*." 

After  the  formal  meeting,  the  two  parties  were  carried 
by  separate  naval  vessels  to  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  There,  on 
August  9th,  the  first  session  of  the  Peace  Conference  was 
held  in  the  Government  building  in  the  navy  yard.  The 
Japanese  presented  "twelve  terms  for  acceptance  by 
Russia.  To  eight  of  these  Count  Sergius  Witte  and 
Baron  Rosen,  the  Russian  envoys,  speedily  agreed;  but  to 
the  proposals  that  Russia  should  surrender  territorial  claims 
and  should  pay  a  money  indemnity,  they  refused  to  assent. 
Matters  thus  came  to  an  impasse  and  the  plenipotentiaries 
having  agreed  to  disagree  between  themselves,  cabled  to 
their  respective  governments  for  further  instructions. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  President  Roosevelt  again 
took  a  hand  in  the  situation.  He  asked  Baron  Kaneko  to 
visit  him  at  Oyster  Bay,  and  through  him  communicated 
his  views  to  the  Japanese  delegates — Baron  Komura  and 
Mr.  Takahira.  He  advised  them  to  waive  their  claim  for 
an  indemnity,  pointing  out  that  Russia  was  perfectly  firm 
in  her  refusal  to  humble  herself  to  this  extent,  and  that 
her  ability  to  pay  would  grow  less  as  the  war  proceeded. 
He  further  pointed  out  that  persistence  in  the  demand  for 
an  indemnity  would  be  likely  to  alienate  the  sympathy 
of  most  of  the  civilized  world. 

He  also  called  Baron  Rosen  to  Oyster  Bay,  and  sent  to 
George  Von  L.  Meyer,  the  American  Ambassador  at  St. 
Petersburg,  instructions  to  secure  a  personal  interview 
with  the  Czar.  He  urged  Russia  to  surrender  the  southern 
half  of  the  Island  of  Saghelien,  which  the  Japanese  had 
taken  during  the  war. 

When  the  envoys  again  met,  the  Japanese  presented 
for  the  last  time  their  former  demands,  which  were  again 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        241 

met  with  a  refusal.  Then  they  offered  to  waive  an  indem 
nity  provided  Russia  would  surrender  her  claim  to  half  of 
Saghelien.  To  this  the  Russians  immediately  agreed  and 
on  September  5th  the  representatives  of  both  countries 
signed  the  treaty  of  peace. 

In  recognition  of  the  President's  great  service  in  this 
matter,  he  received  the  Nobel  Peace  Prize  consisting  of  a 
medal  and  $40,000  in  money.  He  kept  the  medal,  but  the 
money  he  used  as  the  foundation  of  a  fund  to  be  used  for 
the  promotion  of  industrial  peace.  He  also  received  from 
a  group  of  distinguished  frenchmen  an  original  copy  of 
Sully's  "Memoires  of  Henry  le  Grand,"  "in  sympathetic 
recognition  of  the  persistent  and  decisive  initiative  he 
had  taken  towards  gradually  substituting  friendly  and 
judicial  for  violent  methods  in  cases  of  conflict  between 
nations." 

Another  international  question  was  involved  in  an 
effort  to  exclude  the  Japanese  from  the  San  Francisco 
schools.  In  October,  1906,  a  resolution  of  the  San  Fran 
cisco  Board  of  Education  made  effective  a  state  statute 
which  had  been  passed  about  five  years  before.  By  virtue 
of  this  resolution  Chinese,  Korean  and  Japanese  children 
were  excluded  from  the  ordinary  public  schools  and  were 
sent  to  schools  specially  provided  for  them.  The  Chinese 
and  Koreans  acquiesced  in  the  order,  but  the  Japanese 
withdrew  their  children  from  school  entirely,  while  their 
ambassador  lodged  a  protest  with  the  State  Department. 
By  the  treaty  of  1894  between  the  United  States  and 
Japan,  each  country  had  guaranteed  to  the  citizens  of  the 
other  the  greatest  possible  freedom  of  life  and  intercourse 
apart  from  actual  citizenship,  including  the  rights  of 
residence  and  travel.  The  Japanese  now  contended  that 
this  treaty  was  violated  by  the  California  school  order. 

16 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  took  the  perfectly  proper  position  that  a  treaty 
entered  into  by  the  United  States*  was  paramount  to  a 
state  law,  and  immediately  directed  the  United  States 
District  Attorney  at  San  Francisco  to  institute  proceed 
ings  to  test  the  validity  of  the  objectionable  order. 

In  all  this  matter  the  real  difficulty  arose  out  of  the 
Californians'  fear  of  the  competition  of  cheap  Japanese 
labor.  They  resented  the  settlement  in  their  state  of 
great  numbers  of  Orientals  whose  standards  of  life  enabled 
them  to  work  for  wages  which  would  not  support  the 
average  American.  The  school  matter  was  only  an 
incident  arising  out  of  the  race  feeling  which  had  been 
engendered.  The  President  sympathized  with  the  Cali 
fornians  in  their  general  position.  'The  people  of  Cali 
fornia,"  he  said,  "were  right  in  insisting  that  the  Japanese 
should  not  come  thither  in  mass;  that  there  should  be  no 
influx  of  laborers,  of  agricultural  workers,  or  small 
tradesmen — in  short,  no  mass  settlement  or  immigration. 
The  Japanese  themselves  would  not  tolerate  the  intrusion 
into  their  country  of  a  mass  of  Americans  who  would 
displace  Japanese  in  the  business  of  the  land." 

At  his  request,  the  Mayor  of  San  Francisco  and  other 
leading  citizens  came  on  to  see  him  and  he  explained  to 
them  his  desire  to  help  them,  but  his  firm  intention  of 
asserting  the  supremacy  of  the  Federal  Government  in 
dealing  with  foreign  nations.  He  told  them  that  ie 
disapproved  of  any  mixture  of  nations  on  a  large  scale, 
but  that  he  also  disapproved  strongly  of  the  exclusion  of 
Japanese  children  from  the  schools. 

The  question  was  at  last  happily  settled  by  agreement. 
The  Japanese  Government  undertook  to  prevent  the 
immigration  of  laborers  to  this  country  and  the  Cali 
fornians  agreed  to  withdraw  the  school  order.  Congress 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        243 

passed  an  act  on  February  20,  1907,  at  the  President's 
request,  which  empowered  him  to  exclude  from  this 
country  Japanese  laborers  coming  from  Mexico,  Canada 
and  Hawaii.  By  executive  order  of  March  14th,  he  made 
this  act  effective.  Two  years  later,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  Californian  Assembly,  he  was  able  to 
point  to  the  success  of  this  policy.  The  total  number  of 
Japanese  in  the  United  States  had  by  this  time  diminished 
by  over  two  thousand,  and  the  causes  of  friction  were 
gradually  disappearing. 

The  problems  arising  from  the  Spanish  War  were  not 
completely  solved  during  Roosevelt's  administration, 
nor,  indeed,  have  they  been  completely  solved  to  this  day. 
When  Cuba  had  started  upon  her  independent  course 
her  constitution  gave  to  the  United  States  the  right  to 
intervene,  when  absolutely  necessary,  for  the  preservation 
of  a  lawful  government.  All  went  well  until  President 
Palma's  first  term  expired.  Upon  his  re-election  in  1905  a 
revolution  was  begun  by  his  political  opponents  and  he 
rapidly  lost  the  power  to  preserve  order.  In  September, 
1906,  at  his  request,  sailors  wTere  landed  from  the  United 
States  cruiser  Denver,  to  protect  American  property  at 
Havana.  But  the  sailors  were  promptly  withdrawn  by 
orders  from  Washington.  The  next  day  the  President 
conferred  with  his  advisers  at  Oyster  Bay  and  determined 
to  send  Mr.  Taft,  the  Secretary  of  WTar,  and  Robert 
Bacon,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  State,  to  attempt  to 
reconcile  the  two  factions.  But  reconciliation  appeared  to 
be  impossible.  President  Palma  resigned  and  a  quorum 
of  the  Congress  could  not  be  got  to  elect  a  successor. 
The  island  was  thrown  into  chaos. 

Accordingly,  Secretary  Taft  formally  proclaimed 
American  intervention,  and  the  President  appointed 


244  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Charles  E.  Magoon  as  provisional  governor  of  the  island. 
United  States  troops  were  sent  to- maintain  order  and 
normal' conditions  were  rapidly  restored.  Some  fear  was 
expressed  that  this  action  would  result  in  the  annexation 
of  Cuba,  but,  true  to  our  original  promise,  intervention 
ceased  with  the  necessity  for  it,  and  January,  1909,  saw 
Cuba  turned  over  again  to  its  inhabitants  under  the 
Presidency  of  General  Gomez — Palma's  former  opponent. 

President  Roosevelt  felt  strongly  his  responsibility  for 
securing  proper  legislation,  and  the  record  of  his  achieve 
ments  in  this  respect  is  long. 

When  he  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  in  1901,  the 
railroads  exercised  a  vast  and  almost  unchecked  power 
over  the  industry  of  the  country.  The  Interstate  Com 
merce  Commission  had  been  created  in  1887,  but  succes 
sive  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  had  gradually  shorn 
the  Commission  of  any  real  power.  The  practice  of  giving 
rebates  to  favored  shippers  was  common.  By  this  means 
powerful  business  interests  were  able  to  transport  their 
goods  at  a  rate  lower  than  that  accorded  to  their  weaker 
competitors,  with  the  result  that  many  a  small  enterprise 
was  pushed  to  the  wall.  In  his  first  message  to  Congress, 
on  December  3,  1901,  Roosevelt  called  attention  to  this 
situation.  He  also  pointed  out  that  there  was  inTfact  no 
longer  any  power  in  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
to  fix  rates,  although  it  had  been  intended  to  confer  that 
power  upon  them  by  the  act  of  1887.v  "The  act  should 
be  amended,"  he  said.  "The  railway  is  a  public  servant. 
Its  rates  should  be  just  to  and  open  to  all  shippers  alike. 
The  government  should  see  to  it  that  within  its  juris 
diction  this  is  so  and  should  provide  a  speedy,  inexpensive, 
and  effective  remedy  to  that  end." 

Not  long  after  the  writing  of  this  message,   Paul 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        245 

Morton,  the  president  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa 
Fe  Railroad  Company,  offered  to  lend  his  aid  in  exposing 
and  ending  the  rebate  evil.  Thanks  to  his  help  and  to  the 
President's  tireless  insistence,  Congress  passed  the  Elkins 
Act,  which  became  a  law  on  February  19,  1903.  This  act 
was  a  considerable  advance  over  the  previous  law.  It 
forbade  railroads  to  vary  from  their  published  rates,  and 
provided  that  violation  of  its  provisions  either  by  a 
railroad  corporation  itself  or  by  its  officers  or  agents 
should  be  a  punishable  offense^— 

But  the  most  important  railway  legislation  was  yet  to 
come.  The  vital  necessity  of  fixing  and  maintaining 
reasonable  rates  was  apparent,  and  the  President  repeat 
edly  urged  upon  Congress  the  passage  of  a  statute  giving 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  this  power.  He  did 
not  believe  that  this  would  afford  a  panacea  for  the  evils 
under  which  the  country  had  been  suffering,  but  he 
regarded  it  as  the  best  practicable  step  which  could  be 
taken.  "A  measure  of  good  will  come,"  he  said,  "some 
good  will  be  done,  some  injustice  will  have  been  prevented; 
but  we  shall  be  a  long  way  from  the  millennium."  And  he 
further  added  this  caution:  "When  you  give  the  Nation 
that  power,  remember  that  harm  and  not  good  will  come 
unless  you  give  it  with  the  firm  determination  not  only 
to  get  justice  for  yourselves,  but  to  do  justice  to  others. 
You  must  be  as  jealous  to  do  justice  to  the  railroads  as  to 
exact  justice  from  them." 

^Ou  May  4,  1906,  he  sent  Congress  a  special  message 
accompanied  by  a  report  w^hich  had  been  submitted  to 
him  by  the  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Corporations. 
By  this  report  it  appeared  that  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
had  been  benefiting  by  secret  rates  to  the  extent  of 
three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars  yearly  and  had  further 


246  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

profited  by  other  rates  which,  although  not  secret,  were 
adjusted  to  its  advantage. 

As  a  result  of  this  message  and  of  the  popular  feeling 
which  the  President's  attitude  had  finally  aroused, 
Congress  took  the  matter  up  in  earnest.  In  the  face  of 
tremendous  opposition  the  Hepburn  Rate  Bill  was  driven 
through  the  House,/  In  the  Senate  it  was  referred  to  a 
committee  whose  chairman  opposed  it.  The  ranking 
minority  member  of  this  committee  was  Senator  Tillman 
of  South  Carolina  who  favored  the  bill.  The  President 
had  cancelled  an  invitation  to  Tillman  to  dine  at  the 
White  House  because  the  Senator  had  assaulted,  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  his  colleague  from  South  Carolina.  As 
a  result,  the  personal  relations  between  Roosevelt  and 
Tillman  were  strained,  to  say  the  least.  The  majority 
of  the  committee  determined  to  file  an  unfavorable 
report,  and  turned  the  bill  over  to  Senator  Tillman, 
thereby  making  him  its  'sponsor  and  hoping  to  make  it 
impossible  for  the  President  to  urge  its  passage.  But  their 
plan  failed  of  its  effect  because,  as  Roosevelt  saioVhe  was 
delighted  to  go  with  Tillman  or  with  any  one  else  '  |ust 
so  long  as  he  was  traveling  my  way — and  no  longer." 

The  act  in  its  final  form  was  to  some  extent  a  compro 
mise.  The  conservatives  wished  to  emasculate  it  by 
extending  too  far  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  courts.  The 
radicals,  on  the  other  hand,  were  willing  to  risk  a  conflict 
with  the  constitution  by  an  effort  to  abolish  the  appeal 
entirely.  Senator  La  Toilette,  of  Wisconsin,  insisted  that 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  should  be  charged 
with  the  duty  of  valuing  the  railroad  properties  so  as  to  be 
able  to  fix  a  basis  for  reasonable  rates.  He  argued  with 
great  force  that  otherwise  it  would  be  possible  only  to 
determine  whether  a  given  rate  was  reasonable  in  relation 


PRESIDENT   IN   HIS  OWN  RIGHT        247 

to  other  rates,  and  not  whether  the  whole  body  of  rates 
was  reasonable.  The  country  was  not  prepared  for  this 
suggestion,  although  it  found  its  way  into  the  statute  law 
seven  years  later.  The  Hepburn  Bill  was  finally  passed 
in  the  form  advocated  by  the  President  and  became  a  law 
on  June  29,  1906. 

The  effect  of  this  statute  was  far-reaching.  Under 
the  old  law  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  simply 
had  power  to  investigate  any  rate  on  complaint  and  to 
suggest  a  substitute.  In  practice  the  final  determination 
of  the  matter  was  by  the  slow  process  of  the  Federal 
courts.  ^The  new  bill  gave  to  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  in  terms  the  right  to  fix  rates. 

yAnother  statute  which  particularly  affected  the  rail 
roads  was  the  Employers'  Liability  Act  originally  passed 
in  June,  1906.  This  act  made  common  carriers  who  were 
engaged  in  interstate  commerce  liable  for  injuries  to 
their  employees,  even  though  the  injury  was  due  to  the 
negligence  of  another  employee  or  of  the  injured  man 
himself;  On  January  6,  1907,  the  Supreme  Court  declared 
the  act  unconstitutional,  because  it  attempted  to  regulate 
the  rights  of  all  railroad  employees  whether  or  not  they 
were  engaged  in  interstate  commerce.  \On  January  31, 
1908,  the  President  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress 
urging  the  enactment  of  a  law  which  would  not  be  open 
to  this  constitutional  objection.  Such  an  act  was  finally 
passed  and  received  his  approval  on  April  22,  1908. 

One  further  important  piece  of  legislation  should  be 
mentioned.  In  accordance  with  the  President's  recom 
mendation,  Congress,  on  June  30,  1906,  passed  the  Food 
and  Drugs  Act  which  forbade  the  use  of  injurious  drugs 
in  food  and  drink  transported  between  the  states,  and 
forbade  the  use  of  false  and  misleading  labels  on  packages 


248  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

containing  such  food  and  drink..  At  the  same  time 
government  inspection  of  meat  was  provided  for.  Both 
of  these  acts  were  important  and  indeed  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  the  public  health^ 

The  Brownsville  affair  of  1906  was  treated  by  many  of 
the  President's  enemies  as  a  race  question.  But  it  was 
simply  a  matter  of  military  discipline,  and  the  question 
of  race  did  not  enter  into  the  President's  action  at  all. 
Between  the  colored  soldiers  of  the  25th  Infantry  at  Fort 
Brown  and  the  white  citizens  of  the  adjacent  town  of 
Brownsville,  Texas,  considerable  race  feeling  had  devel 
oped.  On  the  night  of  August  13th  a  number  of  soldiers, 
variously  estimated  at  from  nine  to  twenty,  jumped  over 
the  walls  of  the  barracks  and  ran  into  the  town  carrying 
their  loaded  rifles.  When  they  reached  the  streets  they 
began  shooting  at  any  one  they  saw  and  into  any  house 
where  there  were  lights.  Several  people  miraculously 
escaped  death  from  shots  fired  into  the  very-rooms  in 
which  they  sat.  The  Lieutenant  of  Police  was  wounded 
and  his  horse  killed  under  him.  In  one  of  the  saloons  a 
bartender  was  killed  and  another  man  wounded. 

The  call  to  arms  was  sounded  at  the  barracks  and  the 
guilty  soldiers  took  their  places  in  the  ranks  under  cover 
of  the  darkness.  An  investigation  was  immediately 
instituted,  but  the  enlisted  men  and  non-commissioned 
officers  of  the  three  companies  all  united  in  refusing  to 
give  any  information  which  would  lead  to  the  apprehen 
sion  of  the  murderers,  although  it  was  plain  that  their 
identity  must  be  known  to  most  of  the  battalion. 

A  report  of  the  matter  having  been  submitted  to  the 
President  he  summarily  discharged  nearly  all  the  members 
of  the  three  companies  involved.  Immediately  the  press 
rang  with  the  incident.  The  President  was  accused  of 


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PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        249 

having  acted  toward  colored  soldiers  as  he  would  not  have 
acted  had  they  been  white;  and  an  attempt  was  made  to 
alienate  the  negroes  from  their  loyalty  to  him.  He 
indignantly  denied  this  charge,  and  in  response  to  a  Senate 
resolution  transmitted  to  that  body,  on  December  19th,  a 
report  of  the  affair.  In  this  report  he  cited,  in  justification 
of  his  action,  numerous  precedents  drawn  from  the  history 
of  the  Civil  War.  He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
making  Federal  appointments  he  had  made  character 
and  not  color  the  test  of  fitness,  and  asserted  emphatically 
that  white  soldiers  wrould  have  received  from  him  the 
same  treatment  as  black.  No  one  who  reviews  the  story 
of  his  relation  to  the  colored  problem  can  for  a  moment 
suppose  that  in  this  Brownsville  affair  he  was  actuated 
by  any  motive  other  than  a  desire  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  the  United  States  army,  and  to  wipe  out  so  far  as 
possible  a  stain  upon  its  uniform. 

Roosevelt  was  not  merely  a/ good  executive;  he  was  one 
of  the  ablest  executives  we  have  ever  had  in  public  life; 
certainly,  in  this  respect,  no  c/ther  President  can  compare 
with  him  except  Washington. 

Some  men  have  the  ability  to  grasp  large  questions 
of  public  policy,  but  wholly  lack  the  ability  to  transact 
executive  business  quickly  and  efficiently;  others,  while 
they  may  have  the  powrer  to  select  with  wrisdom  subor 
dinates,  are  so  constituted  that  they  can  not  attend  to 
routine  work.  Roosevelt,  like  Washington,  knew  the 
value  of  attention  to  details  in  all  matters  pertaining  to 
what  we  may  call  his  personal  actions.  Though  he  wrote 
thousands  of  letters,  his  system  of  filing  was  such  that 
any  letter  on  any  subject  could  be  produced  literally 
at  a  moment's  notice.  Under  him,  the  White  House  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  model  business  office,  while  social 


250  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

functions,  public  and  private,  mqved  forward  with  a 
smoothness  which  added  greatly  to  the  comfort  and 
enjoyment  of  the  guests. 

It  was,  however,  as  the  executive  head  of  the  vast 
machinery  of  the  Federal  Government  that  Roosevelt 
showed  his  great  qualities  as  an  executive.  He  could  grasp 
quickly  all  the  essential  facts  of  any  situation,  however 
complex,  and  reach  a  decision,  not  hastily,  but  quickly. 
The  decision  once  reached,  he  acted  instantly.  I  have  seen 
great  lawyers  able  to  take  a  mass  of  legal  papers  pertaining 
to  a  given  subject  or  dispute  and  merely  by  rapidly  turn 
ing  the  typewritten  pages,  extract  from  a  mass  of  detail 
all  the  information  necessary  to  enable  them  to  form  a 
judgment.  What  able  lawyers  or  other  trained  special 
ists  can  do  in  their  chosen  fields,  where  years  of  labor 
have  made  them  proficient,  Roosevelt  could  do  in  prac 
tically  every  field  of  government  activity.  His  interests 
were  so  broad,  his  observations  so  keen  and  his  memory  so 
retentive  that  there  were  few  departments  of  the  govern 
ment  in  which  his  subordinates  did  not  find  that  the 
President  knew  almost  as  much  and  sometimes  more 
than  they  did  themselves. 

In  spite  of  this  marvelous  power  of  assimilation,  he 
could  never  have  produced  the  results  he  did  had  he  not 
been  so  deeply  interested  in  practically  every  branch  of 
government  business.  Secretary  Hay  said  that  whereas 
he  saw  McKinley  on  official  business  about  once  a  month, 
he  saw  Roosevelt  every  day.  This  measures  the  relative 
intensity  of  the  interest  of  the  two  men  in  international 
questions.  The  experience  of  the  Secretary  of  State  was 
duplicated  by  almost  every  member  of  McKinley's 
Cabinet,  when  Roosevelt  became  President.  Neither  did 
Roosevelt  confine  his  dealings  with  the  business  of  the 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        251 

departments  to  their  chiefs.  He  knew  personally  all  the 
heads  of  the  many  bureaus  and  many  of  their  assistants. 
When  any  work  was  going  forward  on  which  he  wanted 
quick  action — and  he  usually  wanted  most  things  done 
quickly — the  man  directly  responsible  knew  that  the 
President  might  send  for  him  at  any  time,  that  he  would 
give  him  generous  praise  if  he  did  well,  but  that  for 
slackness  no  excuse  would  be  accepted. 

In  this  connection,  the  following  letter  from  Gifford 
Pinchot,  on  account  of  his  long  and  intimate  association 
with  Roosevelt,  is  of  especial  interest  and  value: 

"President  Roosevelt's  remarkable  power  as  an 
executive,  rested,  as  I  knew  him,  principally  upon  the 
following  qualities: 

"First,  and  most  of  all,  his  natural  tendency  was  to 
act.  He  understood  that  while  action  may  sometimes  be 
wrong,  the  failure  to  aci  is  almost  always  so.  He  was 
painstakingly  careful  in  reaching  conclusions  on  matters 
of  great  moment,  but  once  the  conclusion  was  reached 
action  followed  instantly.  This  was  so  true  that  it  was 
never  safe  to  go  to  him  with  any  plan  that  was  not  fully 
worked  out  and  ready  for  action. 

"Roosevelt  trusted  his  men  and  gave  them  their 
head.  He  knew,  as  every  great  executive  must,  that  he 
could  not  do  it  all  himself.  He  wanted  us,  each  within  our 
sphere,  to  act  as  vigorously  as  he  did  himself.  Once  he 
had  come  to  have  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  honesty 
of  an  adviser,  he  adopted  recommendations  almost  as  a 
matter  of  course.  The  result  was  that  the  men  working 
under  him  were  not  only  confident  in  his  support,  but  had 
a  feeling  of  pride  and  proprietorship  in  their  work  which 
doubled  their  efficiency. 

"Red  tape  had  no  place  in  his  scheme  of  life.    He 


352  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


„ 


Canted  things  done — done  in  accordance  with  rules  if 
possible — but  in  any  event  done.  I  remember  his  sending 
for  an  official,  who  had  reported  that  a  certain  thing 
could  not  be  done,  to  say  if  the  official  in  question  could 
not  see  his  way*  to  do  it,  he,  the  President,  would  get 
somebody  in  his  place  who  could.  Where  red  tape 
conflicted  with  getting  things  done,  it  was  always  the 
re'djtape  that  had  to  suffer.  With  him  machinery  never 
took  the  place  of  the  end  for  which  the  machinery  had 
been  created.  Roosevelt  had  an  unequaled  capacity  for 
inspiring  the  men  who  worked  under  him.  During  his 
administration  thousands  of  clerks  in  Washington  who 
had  never  spoken  with  him  or  shaken  his  hand  were 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  his  great  personality,  saw  the 
vision  of  the  larger  things  to  be  accomplished  through 
the  medium  of  their  minor  tasks,  and  gave  the  best  that 
was  in  them  instead  of  watching  the  clock. 

"Promotion  was  for  merit  in  Roosevelt's  time.  As 
former  Civil  Service  Commissioner  he  understood  that  it 
is  no  more  important  to  keep  the  faithful  civil  servant 
in  office  than  to  get  rid  of  the  unfit.  The  sin  of  the 
delinquent  was  sure  to  find  him  out,  and  no  amount  of 
political  influence  could  keep  the  unfit  in  office,  prevent 
the  recognition  of  the  efficient  or  defer  the  punishment 
of  the  guilty.  Under  him  the  chiefs  in  the  departments 
were  free  from  political  control.  During  my  twelve  years 
of  office  there  was  never  to  my  knowledge  a  single  case  of 
appointing,  promoting,  dismissing,  or  retaining  any  one 
in  the  United  States  Forest  Service  for  political  reasons. 

"Roosevelt  not  only  appointed  men  for  merit  and 
gave  them  a  chance  to  do  their  work,  but  when  their 
work  clashed  with  private  interests  he  stood  firmly 
behind  them  against  political  and  financial  pressure  of 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT         253 

every  kind.  Without  his  backing  they  would  have  been 
helpless,  or  would  have  been  forced  out. 

"Roosevelt  led  his  men.  He  asked  nothing  of  us  that 
he  was  not  ready  to  do  himself.  He  was  his  own  severest 
taskmaster,  and  he  expected  of  himself  and  actually 
accomplished  more  work  than  any  of  us. 

"Finally,  he  was  always  more  than  generous  in 
acknowledging  help  or  good  work,  not  seldom  to  the 
point  of  attributing  to  others  the  credit  for  things  done 
or  said  for  which  he  was  mainly  responsible." 

"I  did  not  usurp  power,"  said  Roosevelt,  "but  I  did 
greatly  broaden  the  use  of  executive  power."  This 
statement  accurately  describes  the  net  result  of  his 
executive  actions  as  President.  He  believed  that  it  was 
his  duty  to  act  for  the  welfare  of  all  the  people  as  he  saw 
that  welfare,  unless  he  was  expressly  prohibited  by  the 
Constitution  or  limited  to  one  course  of  action  only  by 
Congress,  though  in  the  latter  case  he  insisted  that  the 
act  of  Congress  must  not  encroach  on  the  constitutional 
prerogatives  of  the  executive. 

Roosevelt's  action  in  withdrawing  public  lands  from 
entry,  as  well  as  his  action  in  appointing  a  number  of 
voluntary  unpaid  commissions  to  report  to  him  on  such 
matters  as  government  scientific  work,  department 
methods,  and  country  life,  to  which  I  shall  refer  in  the 
chapter  on  his  work  for  the  preservation  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  Nation,  are  examples  of  the  practical 
application  of  this  theory  of  executive  power.  In  each 
instance  there  was  no  express  warrant  in  any  act  of 
Congress  for  the  action  taken  by  the  President,  and  yet, 
in  each  instance,  great  benefit  resulted  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States. 

He  believed,  and  rightly,  that  in  his  attitude  towards 


254  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  power  and  duty  as  the  chief  executive  of  the  Nation, 
he  was  treading  in  the  footsteps  of  Lincoln,  while  those 
who  criticised  his  actions  as  improper  or  unconstitutional 
were  taking  what  he  called  the  legalistic  or  Buchanan 
attitude  towards  executive  power.  He  often  said  that  as 
he  wore  a  ring  containing  the  hair  of  Lincoln  on  the 
occasion  of  his  inauguration,  he  bound  himself  to  treat 
the  constitution  after  the  manner  of  Lincoln. 

Many  people  believe  that  a  President  in  making  his 
appointments  should  select  the  best  man  without  con 
sulting  the  party  leaders  in  the  state  where  the  appointee 
is  to  reside  and  to  exercise  theTunctions  of  his  office. 
These  people  not  only  forget  that  the  President  is  respon 
sible  to  the  party  to  whose  votes  he  owes  his  office,  but 
they  also  forget  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  requires  important  Presidential  appointments  to 
be  ratified  by  the  Senate.  For  many  years  it  has  been  the 
unwritten  law  of  the  Senate  that  no  appointment  shall 
be  ratified  unless  approved  by  the  Senators  of  the  state 
involved.  Even  George  Washington,  should  he  unex 
pectedly  re-appear  among  us,  could  not  expect  to  receive 
an  appointment  to  a  Federal  office  unless  he  had  the 
backing  of  the  Senators  from  Virginia.  It  follows  that  a 
President  often  selects  not  the  man  whom  he  considers 
the  very  best  for  the  position,  but  the  very  best  man 
whom,  under  our  system,  he  is  permitted  to  appoint. 

Appointments  to  the  diplomatic  service  are  not  of  a 
local  nature  and  therefore  Roosevelt  selected  an  ambassa 
dor  or  minister  solely  on  the  basis  of  his  own  knowledge  of 
the  appointee's  fitness.  In  filling  minor  offices,  however, 
he  usually  accepted  the  suggestion  of  the  Republican 
Senator  or  Senators  from  the  state  in  which  the  appoint 
ment  was  to  be  made.  If  there  was  no  Republican 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        255 

Senator  from  that  state  then  he  usually  acted  on  the 
advice  of  the  local  Republican  leaders.  If  a  Senator 
or  other  political  leader  ever  knowingly  suggested  an 
unfit  man  for  a  position,  he  never  had  an  opportunity  to 
deceive  the  President  again. 

For  important  offices,  such  as  those  of  judge  or 
district  attorney,  while  he  sometimes  took  the  advice  of 
the  local  party  leaders,  he  was  always  careful,  so  far  as 
possible,  to  acquaint  himself  personally  with  a  candidate's 
qualifications  before  appointing  him.  In  the  great 
majority  of  such  cases  he  acted  on  his  own. judgment  and 
appointed  the  man  whom  he  believed  best  qualified  for 
the  position. 

There  were,  of  course,  many  cases  in  which  his  appoint 
ments  were  the  subject  of  adverse  criticism.  Take  for 
instance  the  case  of  William  Plimley.  The  Assistant 
Treasurership  at  New  York  City  became  vacant  and  the 
President  cast  about  for  a  high-class  man  to  fill  the  place. 
He  confidentially  invited  George  R.  Sheldon  and  Robert 
Bacon  to  accept  the  appointment,  but  both  of  them 
declined.  Either  would  have  been  above  criticism.  No 
suggestions  were  forthcoming  from  the  commercial 
interests  of  New  York  City.  The  situation  was  growing 
serious  because  the  sub  treasury  had  no  head.  At  last 
Senator  Platt  came  forward  with  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Plimley,  who  was  backed  not  only  by  the  Senator  but 
by  a  former  member  of  McKinley's  Cabinet  and  by  other 
eminent  men.  Plimley  accordingly  received  the  appoint 
ment.  While  it  was  true  that  he  was  Platt's  choice,  yet 
it  was  also  true  that  the  President  had  done  his  best  to 
pick  his  own  man  for  the  position,  and  had  investigated 
Plimley's  character  so  far  as  possible  before  appointing 
him. 


256  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Another  instance  illustrates  the  President's  attitude 
towards  the  subject  of  appointments.  Penrose  A.  McClain 
was  Internal  Revenue  Collector  at  Philadelphia.  He  had 
been  a  member  of  Senator  Quay's  organization  but  had 
quarreled  with  his  associates.  Shortly  afterwards  there 
came  a  local  campaign  in  which  the  Quay  men  were 
opposed  by  the  independents.  In  accordance  with  the 
President's  orders,  McClain  was  advised  to  keep  out  of 
the  fight,  but  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  have 
a  fling  at  Senator  Quay.  The  regulars  won  the  election, 
and  when  McClain's  term  expired  Senators  Quay  and 
Penrose  asked  that  he  should  be  retired.  The  President 
was  not  willing  to  have  the  peace  of  his  administration 
disturbed  by  factional  disputes  between  United  States 
Senators  and  Federal  officeholders,  and  he  accordingly 
agreed  that  McClain  should  go. 

•William  McCoach  was  suggested  for  McClain's  place. 
The  President  did  not  know  him.  Accordingly  he  allowed 
the  possibility  of  his  appointment  to  be  announced 
and  then  waited  to  watch  the  effect.  There  appeared 
nothing  against  him  and  Roosevelt  accordingly  asked 
his  two  sponsors  to  furnish  certificates  of  character. 
This  they  readily  did  and  McCoach's  commission  was 
sent  to  him  at  once.  This  was  another  case  in  which  the 
impossibility  of  personal  acquaintance  with  every  candi 
date  for  office  made  it  necessary  to  rely  upon  the  recom 
mendation  of  the  responsible  party  leaders. 

Once  his  administration  was  fairly  on  its  way,  Roose 
velt's  Cabinet  appointments  were  largely  by  way  of  pro 
motion.  He  filled  vacancies  with  men  who  had  success 
fully  performed  their  responsible  duties,  instead  of  with 
untried  men  whose  abilities  he  had  had  no  personal 
opportunity  to  observe.  Thus  George  B.  Cortelyou, 


PRESIDENT  IN  HIS  OWN  RIGHT        257 

who  began  as  Private  Secretary  to  the  President, 
became  Secretary  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor,  then  Postmaster -General  and  then  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury.  Elihu  Root,  who  had  retired  from 
the  War  Department  to  private  life,  was  called  back 
to  become  Secretary  of  State  upon  John  Hay's  death  in 
1905,  and  held  that  position  until  he  resigned  on  January 
25,  1909,  to  become  United  States  Senator  from  New 
York,  He  was  then  succeeded  by  Robert  Bacon,  the 
Assistant  Secretary. 

Charles  J.  Bonaparte,  who  had  been  a  special  assistant 
to  the  Attorney-General  in  the  investigation  of  the 
postal  frauds,  became  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  1905  and 
later  became  Attorney-General.  Secretary  Metcalf  moved 
up  from  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  to  the 
Navy  Department  and  remained  there  until  ill  health 
compelled  him  to  retire,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  the 
Assistant  Secretary,  Truman  H.  Newberry.  James  R. 
Garfield,  a  son  of  the  murdered  President,  made  a  splendid 
record  as  Commissioner  of  Corporations,  and  finally 
became  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  Attorney-General 
Moody,  after  arduous  and  faithful  service,  received  an 
appointment  to  the  Supreme  Court.  George  Von  L. 
Meyer,  who  had  earned  the  President's  high  regard  by 
his  work  as  Ambassador  to  Russia  at  the  time  of  the 
Portsmouth  Treaty,  succeeded  Cortelyou  as  Postmaster- 
General  on  March  4,  1907. 

William  H.  Taft  had  performed  his  duties  as  Governor- 
General  of  the  Philippines  with  singular  ability,  and  was 
well  qualified  for  the  position  of  Secretary  of  War,  which 
he  held  from  the  day  of  his  appointment  until  he  received 
the  Republican  nomination  for  the  Presidency  in  June, 
1908.  Upon  his  resignation  his  place  \vas  filled  by  General 

17 


258  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Luke  E.  Wright,  of  Tennessee,  who  had  served  with  him 
as  Vice-Governor  of  the  Philippines. 

Oscar  S.  Straus,  of  New  York,  was,  during  Roosevelt's 
second  term,  the  only  member  of  the  Cabinet  who  had  not 
had  previous  experience  under  the  President.  He  was 
Chairman  of  the  National  Civic  Federation  and  was  an 
independent  Republican,  who  had  until  lately  been  a 
Democrat. 

This  was  a  remarkable  group  of  men,  whose  ability 
and  character  were  a  tribute  to  the  President's  judgment 
in  choosing  his  fellow  workers.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Mr. 
Bryce,  the  British  Ambassador,  told  Roosevelt  that 
though  he  had  studied  intimately  the  governments  of 
many  different  countries,  he  had  "never  in  any  country 
seen  a  more  eager,  high-minded  and  efficient  set  of  public 
servants,  men  more  useful  and  creditable  to  their  country, 
than  the  men  then  doing  the  work  of  the  American 
Government  in  Washington  and  in  the  field." 


CHAPTER  XVH 

WHAT  HE  DID  FOR  THE  NAVY 

COLONEL  ROOSEVELT  held,  and  so  expressed 
himself  in  his  autobiography,  that  the  two  Ameri 
can  achievements  that  impressed  foreign  people 
during  the  first  dozen  years  of  the  twentieth  century 
were  the  digging  of  the  Panama  Canal  and  the  cruise  of 
the  battle  fleet  around  the  world. 

In  speaking  of  the  growth  of  the  Navy  during  the 
period  that  he  was  its  Commander-in-Chief  he  said:  "Our 
Army  and  Navy,  and  above  all  our  people,  learned  some 
lessons  from  the  Spanish  War  and  applied  them  to  our 
uses.  During  the  following  decade  the  improvement  in  our 
Navy  and  Army  was  very  great;  not  in  material  only,  but 
also  in  personnel,  and,  above  all,  in  the  ability  to  handle 
our  forces  in  good-sized  units.  By  1908,  when  our  battle 
fleet  steamed  around  the  world,  the  Navy  had  become  in 
every  respect  as  fit  a  fighting  instrument  as  any  other 
Navy  in  the  world,  fleet  for  fleet.  Even  in  size  there 
was  but  one  nation — England — which  was  completely 
out  of  our  class :  and  in  view  of  our  relations  with  Eng 
land  and  all  the  English-speaking  peoples,  this  was  of  no 
consequence." 

The  year  1898,  in  which  he  had  left  the  position  of 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  help  organize  the 
Rough  Riders,  had  proved  a  turning  point  in  the  history 
of  the  Nation.  With  the  conclusion  of  the  Spanish-Ameri 
can  War,  America  found  herself  in  a  new  international 
position.  New  colonies  brought  new  responsibilities. 

(259) 


260  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Porto  Rico  was  added  to  our  territories  and  we  assumed  a 

j[        / 

protectorate  over  Cuba.    In  the  Pacific,  the  Philippines 
d  Hawaii,  as  well  as  Guam  and  several  smaller  islands 
ere  annexed.    The  United  States  thus  assumed  a  new 
sition  as  a  world  power,  and  with  this  came  the  devel 
opment  of  a  new  foreign  policy.   No  one  appreciated  these 
new  responsibilities  that  had  come  to  the  Nation  more 
than  Mr.  Roosevelt.   As  he  stated,  in  his  second  inaugural 
address,  "much  has  been  given  to  us  and  much  will  right 
fully  be  expected  of  us.   ...   Power  means  responsibility 

and  danger We  have  become  a  great  Nation, 

forced  by  the  fact  of  its  greatness  into  relations  with  other 
nations  of  the  earth." 

Always  Roosevelt  was  essentially  a  "Navy  man." 
fhe  first  book  that  he  ever  wrote,  back  in  1882,  was  "The 
Naval  Operations  of  the  War  Between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States."  Always  he  was  a  close  student  of 
naval  affairs.  Long  before  he  embarked  upon  the  public 
life  of  national  leadership  he  knew  the  relative  strengths  of 
the  navies  of  the  world,  their  building  programs,  the 
personnel  of  their  fleets  and  the  minutest  detail  in  regard 
to  their  armaments.  WTien  he  came  to  the  position  of 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  he  carried  with  him  the 
conviction  that  "the  strong  arm  of  the  government  in 
enforcing  respect  for  its  just  rights  in  international  mat 
ters  is  the  Navy  of  the  United  States."  While  he  served 
in  that  capacity  he  had  the  opportunity  to  study  the  Navy 
at  close  quarters  and  to  acquire  that  expert  knowledge 
that  was  to  profit  him  greatly  in  a  few  years  in  the 
upbuilding  of  the  greater  Navy  that  came  as  a  logical 
sequence  to  the  expansion  of  our  position  as  a  world 
power. 

With  his  elevation  to  the  Presidency,  one  of  the  most 


WHAT  HE   DID   FOR  THE   NAVY         261 

forceful  of  his  initial  utterances  was  his  pronouncement  in 
favor  of  a  greater  Navy,  on  the  ground  "that  it  is  not 
possible  to  improvise  a  navy  after  war  breaks  out."  In  his 
first  message  to  Congress,  December  3,  1901,  he  declared 
"that  the  work  of  upbuilding  our  Navy  must  be  steadily 
continued."  He  avowed  "that  no  one  point  of  our  policy, 
foreign  or  domestic,  is  more  important  than  this  to  the 
honor  and  material  welfare,  and  above  all  to  the  peace, 
of  our  Nation  in  the  future.  Whether  we  desire  it  or  not 
we  must  henceforth  recognize  that  we  have  international 
duties  no  less  than  international  rights.  Even  if  our  flag 
were  hauled  down  in  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico, 
even  if  we  decided  not  to  build  the  Isthmian  Canal,  we 
should  need  a  thoroughly  trained  .Navy  of  adequate  size, 
or  else  be  prepared  definitely  and  for  all  time  to  abandon 
the  idea  that  our  Nation  is  among  those  whose  sons  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships.  Unless  our  commerce  is  always 
to  be  carried  in  foreign  bottoms,  we  must  have  war  craft 
to  protect  it." 

The  American  Navy  at  that  time  had  nine  battleships 
and  eight  more  in  course  of  construction.  With  the  laconic 
statement  that  an  adequate  navy  "is  the  best  guarantee 
against  war  and  the  best  insurance  for  peace,"  Roosevelt 
urged  the  construction  of  additional  battleships  and 
armored  cruisers,  with  auxiliary  and  lighter  craft  in 
proportion.  He  advocated  the  policy  of  "wear  out  rather 
than  rust  out."  He  believed  in  the  training  of  the  per 
sonnel  in  frequent  fleet  maneuvers  "under  a  thorough 
and  well-planned  system  of  progressive  instruction." 
For  the  first  time  in  our  history,  naval  maneuvers  under 
the  immediate  command  of  an  Admiral  of  the  United 
States  Navy  were  held  on  a  large  scale  during  the  year 
1902.  Firm  in  his  belief  that  "the  only  shots  that  count 


262  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

are  the  shots  that  hit,"  President  ^Roosevelt  pressed  upon 
Congress  the  need  of  providing  our  fleets  not  only  with 
ships,  but  with  the  facilities  for  making  expert  the  man 
behind  the  gun. 

Even  with  the  lessons  of  the  Spanish-American  War 
fresh  in  their  minds,  our  people  were,  in  a  measure,  as 
evidenced  by  the  attitude  of  their  representatives  in 
Congress,  reluctant  to  approve  extensive  naval  appro 
priations,  particularly  for  the  extensive  fleet  maneuvers 
and  target  practices  that  Roosevelt  so  earnestly  advocated. 
Our  naval  construction  program  at  this  time  was  confined 
to  the  building  of  one  new  additional  battleship  a  year, 
with  the  replacement  of  worn-out  ships  as  they  passed 
out  of  service.  Roosevelt  was  content  for  the  time  with 
this  program,  though  he  used  the  building  of  the  Panama 
Canal  and  the  widening  of  the  "open  door"  in  the  Orient 
to  impress  on  the  people  the  new  and  growing  importance 
of  the  Navy.  "  There  is  no  more  patriotic  duty  before  us 
as  a  people  than  to  keep  the  Navy  adequate  to  the  needs 
of  this  country's  position,"  he  wrote  in  his  message  to 
Congress  on  December  6,  1904.  "We  have  undertaken 
to  build  the  Isthmian  Canal.  We  have  undertaken  to 
secure  for  ourselves  our  just  share  in  the  trade  of  the 
Orient.  We  have  undertaken  to  protect  our  citizens  in 
foreign  lands.  We  continue  steadily  to  insist  on  the 
application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  the  Western 
Hemisphere.  Unless  our  attitude  in  these  and  all  similar 
matters  is  to  be  a  mere  boastful  sham  we  can  not  afford 
to  abandon  our  naval  program." 

The  Russo-Japanese  War  gave  a  striking  emphasis  to 
the  admonitions  of  the  President.  Lessons  of  the  conflict 
were  apparent  to  all  critical  naval  observers.  It  was 
brought  out  that  not  a  single  battleship  had  been  sunk 


WHAT  HE   DID  FOR  THE  NAVY         263 

by  torpedo  fire  or  gunnery,  while  many  cruisers  had  gone 
down  under  the  heavy  guns  of  the  big  ships.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  while  the  torpedo-boats  were  indispen 
sable  and  the  fast,  light-armored  cruisers  very  useful,  the 
main  reliance  was  to  be  placed  upon  battleships,  heavily 
armored  and  heavily  gunned.  Upon  this  showing,  Mr. 
Roosevelt  urged  the  building  of  more  battleships,  or 
"ships  so  powerfully  armed  that  they  can  inflict  the 
maximum  of  damage  upon  our  opponents,  and  so  well 
protected  that  they  can  suffer  a  severe  hammering  in 
return  without  fatal  impairment  of  their  ability  to  fight 
and  maneuver."  In  these  contentions  the  President  was 
backed  up  by  his  naval  advisers  and,  as  a  consequence,  by 
the  close  of  his  first  term,  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
the  American  Navy  not  only  raised  to  a  position  second 
only  to  Great  Britain  in  the  point  of  naval  armaments, 
but  girded  to  hold  its  high  place  through  the  years  to 
follow. 

Elected  again  to  the  Presidency,  he  marked  with 
pleasure  the  development  of  the  Hague  tribunal  "as  not 
only  a  sympton  of  growing  closeness  of  relationship,  but 
a  meai  s  by  which  the  growth  can  be  furthered."  But  he 
held  that  disarmament  can  never  be  of  prime  importance, 
saying,  "There  is  more  need  to  get  rid  of  the  causes  of  war 
than  of  the  implements  of  war."  He  laid  special  emphasis 
on  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress 
in  1905,  saying  "That  our  rights  and  interests  are  deeply 
concerned  in  the  maintenance  of  the  doctrine  is  so  clear 
as  hardly  to  need  argument."  As  a  precautionary  mea 
sure,  in  the  interests  of  peace,  he  again  urged  the  con 
tinuance  of  the  program  for  the  "wear  out  and  not  rust 
out"  of  existing  ships,  and  the  continued  replacement  of/ 
obsolete  types. 


264  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Again  the  following  year  the  President  drew  upon  the 
pages  of  history  for  a  striking  illustration  in  support  of 
his  naval  policy.  In  his  message  to  Congress  he  wrote: 
"The  United  States  Navy  is  the  surest  guarantor  of 
peace  which  this  country  possesses.  It  is  earnestly  to  be 
wished  that  we  would  profit  by  the  teachings  of  history  in 
this  matter.  A  strong  and  wise  people  will  study  its 
own  failures  no  less  than  its  triumphs,  for  there  is  wisdom 
to  be  learned  from  the  study  of  both.  For  this  purpose 
nothing  could  be  more  instructive  than  a  rational  study  of 
the  war  of  1812,  as  it  is  told,  for  instance,  by  Captain 
Mahan.  There  was  only  one  way  by  which  the  war  could 
have  been  avoided.  If  during  the  preceding  twelve  years 
a  navy  relatively  as  strong  as  that  which  this  country 
now  has  had  been  built  up,  and  an  army  provided  rela 
tively  as  good  as  that  which  this  country  now  has,  there 
never  would  have  been  the  slightest  necessity  of  fighting 
the  war;  and  if  the  necessity  had  arisen,  the  war  would, 
under  such  circumstances,  have  ended  with  our  speedy 
and  overwhelming  triumph.  But  our  people,  during  those 
twelve  years,  refused  to  make  any  preparation  whatever, 
regarding  either  the  Army  or  Navy." 

The  year  1907  brought  a  revolution  in  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
plans  for  maintaining  the  Navy  on  a  one-battleship-a-year 
program.  His  attitude  in  the  matter  is  set  forth  in  his  mes 
sage  to  Congress  in  which  he  said:  "It  was  hoped  that  the 
Hague  Conference  might  deal  with  the  question  of  the  lim 
itation  of  armaments.  But  even  before  it  had  assembled 
informal  inquiries  had  developed  that  as  regards  naval  arm 
aments,  the  only  ones  in  which  this  country  had  any  inter 
est,  it  was  hopeless  to  try  to  devise  any  plan  for  which  there 
was  the  slightest  possibility  of  securing  the  assent  of  the 
nations  gathered  at  the  Hague.  No  plan  was  even  proposed 


©  Underwood  <x  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

THE  COMMANDERS-IN-CHIEF  OF  THE  NAVY  AND  OF  THE  FLEET 

President  Roosevelt  and  Admiral  Robley  D.  ("Fighting  Bob")  Evans,  on  the 
deck  of  the  flagship  of  the  United  States  fleet  which  had  circled  the  globe,  at  Hamp 
ton  Roads,  February  21,  1909. 


WHAT  HE   DID  FOR  THE  NAVY         265 

which  would  have  had  the  assent  of  more  than  one  first- 
class  power  outside  of  the  United  States.  The  only  plan 
that  seemed  at  all  feasible,  that  of  limiting  the  size  of 
battleships,  met  with  no  favor  at  all.  It  is  evident,  there 
fore,  that  it  is  folly  for  this  Nation  to  base  any  hope  of 
securing  peace  on  an  international  agreement  as  to  the 
limitations  of  armaments.  Such  being  the  fact  it  would  be 
most  unwise  for  us  to  stop  the  upbuilding  of  our  Navy. 
To  build  one  battleship  of  the  best  and  most  advanced 
type  in  one  year  would  barely  keep  our  fleet  up  to  its 
present  force.  This  is  not  enough.  In  my  judgment,  we 
should  this  year  provide  for  four  battleships." 

In  addition,  the  President  urged  even  more  thorough 
preparation  of  the  men  of  the  Navy7,  and  of  its  auxiliaries, 
docks,  coaling  stations,  colliers  and  supply  ships.  He 
advocated  plenty  of  torpedo-boats  and  destroyers,  and 
fortifications  of  the  best  type  for  all  the  great  harbors  on 
both  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts.  Four  months  after 
this  message  was  delivered  to  Congress,  he  sent  a  special 
message  to  that  body,  on  April  14,  1908,  urging  in  more 
complete  detail  the  four-battleship  plan  as  against  the 
one-  or  two-battleship  program  that  had  prevailed. 

It  was  in  1907,  during  the  discussion  with  Japan  of  the 
exclusion  of  Japanese  children  from  the  public  schools  of 
California  that  the  President  decided  to  send  the  American 
battle  fleet  around  the  world.  He  took  no  counsel  in  the 
matter,  but  acted  solely  on  his  own  initiative,  not  con 
sulting  either  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  or  Congress. 
In  June~tEe  newspapers  reported  that  the  President 
would  despatch  the  fleet  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The 
announcement  created  a  sensation.  Some  newspapers 
openly  declared  such  a  move  would  end  in  war.  His 
critics  said  he  wanted  a  wrar.  There  was  much  speculation 


266  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

about  the  matter  until  finally  all  doubts  as  to  the  Pres 
ident's  intentions  were  swept  away  when  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  in  an  address  at  Oakland,  California,  on 
July  4th,  announced  that  the  American  Navy  shortly 
would  visit  the  Pacific  coast.  Shortly  afterward  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Admiral  Evans,  Rear  Admiral 
Brownson,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation,  and  other 
naval  authorities,  were  summoned  to  a  conference  at 
Oyster  Bay.  Then  a  certain  section  of  his  critics  were  up 
in  arms.  In  Washington  the  head  of  the  Senate  Com 
mittee  on  Naval  Affairs  announced  that  the  fleet  should 
not  and  could  not  go  because  Congress  would  refuse  to 
appropriate  the  necessary  money.  Roosevelt's  answer 
was  typical  of  him.  He  said  he  had  money  enough  to 
send  the  fleet  around  to  the  Pacific  coast,  "and  that  if 
Congress  didn't  appropriate  funds  to  bring  it  home  it 
would  stay  there."  After  that,  there  was  no  further 
difficulty. 

European  journals  commented  freely  on  the  proposed 
voyage  and  almost  without  exception  took  the  view  that 
the  cruise  had  some  relation  to  the  Japanese  situation,  as 
indeed  it  had,  in  the  sense  that  that  situation  was  one 
of  several  causes  which  led  the  President  to  decide  that 
the  voyage  should  be  made,  the  other  causes  being  his 
desire  to  afford  the  fleet  sea  practice,  to  demonstrate  to 
other  nations  the  efficiency  of  the  American  Navy,  and, 
above  all,  to  inspire  the  people  of  the  United  States  with 
a  practical  enthusiasm  for  the  Navy,  so  that  they  might 
thereafter  take  a  greater  interest  in  what  he  regarded  as 
its  proper  development. 

The  ships  began  assembling  in  Hampton  Roads 
December  1,  1907,  and  in  ten  days  were  ready  for  their 
departure — the  mightiest  fleet  the  United  States  ever 


WHAT  HE  DID   FOR  THE  NAVY        267 

had  assembled  up  to  that  time.  President  Roosevelt, 
accompanied  by  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  a  distinguished 
company  of  guests,  went  down  to  Hampton  Roads  to  see 
the  fleet  off.  On  the  bridge  of  the  Mayflower,  he  led  the 
magnificent  four-mile  line  of  fighting  vessels  during  the 
first  stage  of  the  voyage,  from  the  anchorage  grounds  in 
Hampton  Roads  to  the  Horseshoe  Bend  of  Chesapeake 
Bay.  Then,  when  the  wide  reaches  of  the  sea  were  visible, 
through  the  wide-swung  capes  of  Virginia,  he  turned 
aside  and,  coming  to  anchorage,  reviewed  the  passing 
pageant. 

There  was  not  a  ship  in  the  line  old  enough  to  have 
smelled  the  powder  or  taken  the  shot  of  Manila  or  San 
tiago.  Every  one  of  the  sixteen  battleships  had  been 
built  since  the  Spanish-American  War.  All  were  of 
modern  design  and  armament — examples  of  the  aggressive 
sea-going  navy  which  the  President  had  declared  to  be  so 
essential  to  the  peace  of  the  country.  It  was  the  new 
American  Navy  in  great  part  created  since  Roosevelt  had 
become  President;  and  Roosevelt  was  proud  of  this 
showing. 

"Did  you  ever  see  such  a  fleet  and  such  a  day;  by 
George,  isn't  it  magnificent?"  he  chuckled  as  he  paced 
rapidly  up  and  down  the  deck  of  the  Mayflower. 

"I  tell  you,"  he  remarked  to  his  friends,  "our  enlisted 
men  are  everything.  They  are  perfectly  bully  and  they 
are  up  to  everything  required  of  them.  This  is  indeed  a 
great  fleet  and  a  great  day." 

The  fleet  that  steamed  out  to  sea  under  the  leadership 
of  Rear  Admiral  Robley  D.  Evans,  of  Spanish-American 
War  fame,  was  divided  into  two  squadrons  of  two  divi 
sions  each.  The  first  division  was  composed  of  the  flag 
ship  Connecticut  and  the  battleships  Louisiana,  Kansas 


268  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

and  Vermont.  The  second  division,  commanded  by  Rear 
Admiral  William  H.  Emery,  comprised  the  battleships 
Georgia,  Virginia,  New  Jersey  and  Rhode  Island.  The 
third  division,  commanded  by  Rear  Admiral  C.  M. 
Thomas,  comprised  the  battleships  Minnesota,  Maine, 
Ohio  and  Missouri.  The  fourth  division,  commanded  by 
Rear  Admiral  C.  S.  Sperry,  comprised  the  battleships 
Alabama,  Illinois,  Kearsarge  and  Kentucky.  The  fleet 
auxiliaries  were  the  supply  ships  Culgoa  and  Glacier, 
the  repair  ship  Panther  and  the  tender  Yankton.  Six 
torpedo-boats  under  Captain  Cone  rounded  out  the  fleet. 

It  had  been  generally  supposed  up  to  this  time  that 
the  destination  of  the  fleet  was  Magdalena  Bay  and  pos 
sibly  a  cruise  along  the  Pacific  coast  as  far  as  Seattle. 
But  just  before  it  steamed  away  the  report  was  whispered 
about  that  certain  charts  pertaining  to  the  Manila  Islands 
and  the  Suez  Canal  had  been  shipped  with  other  para 
phernalia,  and  immediately  the  conclusion  was  reached 
that  the  mission  of  the  fleet  actually  wras  a  "round-the- 
world"  trip.  Hardly  had  Roosevelt  returned  to  the 
White  House  from  the  farewell,  when  it  was  announced 
that  the  fleet  would  continue  on  to  our  insular  possessions 
and  return  home  by  the  Suez  Canal.  WTien  the  news  was 
flashed  to  the  far  corners  of  the  earth  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  Japan  and  China,  sent  earnest  invitations 
inviting  the  ships  to  pay  them  a  friendly  visit.  They 
forthwith  began  preparing  royal  welcomes,  and  royal 
they  subsequently  proved. 

Without  accident  or  untoward  incident  of  any  kind 
the  fleet  proceeded  south  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
South  America.  It  touched  at  Port  of  Spain  and  then  at 
Rio  Janeiro.  At  the  latter  city  it  was  received  with  signal 
honors  and  remained  for  a  few  days  enjoying  the  hos- 


WHAT  HE   DID  FOR  THE  NAVY        269 

pitality  of  the  enthusiastic  Latin-Americans.  Coal  and 
supplies  were  taken  on  at  these  stops.  When  the  Straits 
of  Magellan  were  reached  the  skeptics  were  completely 
confounded,  for  the  giant  battleships  negotiated  the 
passageway,  "where  dwell  the  ghosts  of  many  ships  that 
had  been  battered  to  pieces  on  the  rocks,"  without  a 
single  misfortune.  Callao  was  reached  in  February,  1908. 
On  the  way  up  the  west  coast  the  ships  engaged  in  their 
regular  spring  target  practice  and  arriving  finally  in 
Magdalena  Bay — by  the  permission  of  the  Mexican 
government — spent  thirty  days  in  close  competition. 
Navy  Department  records  show  that  the  marksmanship 
attained  during  these  cruise  practices  excelled  anything 
that  had  been  chronicled  up  to  that  time.  Of  this 
important  phase  of  the  voyage,  Admiral  Sperry,  who 
commanded  the  fleet  after  Admiral  "Bob"  Evans  relin 
quished  the  post  of  Commander-in-Chief  at  San  Francisco, 
reported  by  letter  to  President  Roosevelt: 

"As  for  the  effect  of  the  cruise  upon  the  training, 
discipline  and  effectiveness  of  the  fleet,  the  good  cannot 
be  exaggerated.  It  is  a  war  game  in  every  detail."  He 
referred  to  the  excellent  opportunities  offered  for  special 
ization  in  wireless,  gunnery,  tactics,  battle  maneuvers  and 
coal  economy,  and  on  the  latter  point  emphasized  the 
rivalry  between  the  ships  in  the  matter  of  keeping  down 
coal  consumption.  "All  this  has  been  done,"  he  con 
cluded,  "but  the  field  is  widening  and  work  has  only 
begun." 

President  Roosevelt  had  touched  on  these  things  in  his 
message  to  Congress,  written  just  prior  to  the  departure 
of  the  fleet. 

"The  battle  fleet  is  about  departing  by  the  Straits  of 
Magellan  to  visit  the  Pacific  coast,"  he  wrote.  "No  fleet 


270  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  such  size  has  ever  made  such  a  voyage,  and  it  will  be  of 
very  great  educational  use  to  all  engaged  in  it.  The  only 
way  by  which  to  teach  officers  and  men  how  to  handle 
the  fleet  so  as  to  meet  every  possible  strain  and  emergency 
in  time  of  war  is  to  have  them  practice  under  similar 
conditions  in  time  of  peace.  Moreover,  the  only  way  to 
find  out  our  actual  needs  is  to  perform  in  time  of  peace 
whatever  maneuvers  might  be  necessary  in  time  of  war. 
After  war  is  declared  it  is  too  late  to  find  out  the  needs; 
that  means  to  invite  disaster.  This  trip  to  the  Pacific  will 
show  what  some  of  our  needs  are  and  will  enable  us  to 
provide  for  them.  The  proper  place  for  an  officer  to  learn 
his  duty  is  at  sea,  and  the  only  way  in  which  a  navy  can 
ever  be  made  efficient  is  by  practice  at  sea,  under  all  the 
conditions  that  would  have  to  be  met  if  war  existed.  .  V  . 
The  United  States  Navy  is  the  best  guaranty  the  nation 
has  that  its  honor  and  interest  will  not  be  neglected;  and 
in  addition  it  offers  by  far  the  best  insurance  for  peace 
that  can  by  human  ingenuity  be  devised." 

When  the  fleet  reached  San  Francisco  Admiral  Evans 
retired  and  Rear  Admiral  C.  S.  Sperry  assumed  control, 
to  remain  in  charge  until  the  ships  were  safely  anchored 
home  again  in  Hampton  Roads.  From  the  Golden  Gate 
the  ships  moved  out  over  the  Pacific  to  Honolulu.  The 
battleships  Alabama  and  Maine  dropped  out  and  their 
places  were  taken  by  the  newer  ships  Wisconsin  and 
Nebraska.  The  six  destroyers  separated  from  the  main 
fleet  at  San  Francisco  and  after  visiting  Samoa  returned 
home. 

In  the  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans  the  Americans  met 
everywhere  with  a  cordial  welcome.  The  American  flag 
was  warmly  greeted  and  nowhere  was  there  any 
unpleasant  feature  to  mar  the  program  of  the  visitors. 


WHAT  HE  DID  FOR  THE  NAVY        271 

Auckland,  Sydney  and  Melbourne  made  good  their 
invitations  in  gracious  style.  Yokohama  showed  not  the 
slightest  resentment  over  the  coming  of  the  huge  Pacific 
touring  party.  The  "open  door"  that  had  been  extended 
to  Perry  in  1853  was  even  more  widely  extended.  Suez 
was  reached  the  third  day  of  January,  1909,  and  when  the 
fleet  heard  of  the  appalling  disaster  caused  by  the  earth 
quake  in  Sicily  and  southern  Italy  several  of  the  American 
battleships  under  the  direction  of  Admiral  Sperry  pro 
ceeded  to  the  stricken  country  and  helped  in  the  work 
of  relief. 

The  good  effects  of  the  cruise  were  apparent  to  the 
men  of  the  Navy  even  before  the  country  at  large  had 
come  to  know  its  value  .  Starting  out  as  sixteen  individual 
units  the  fleet  had  become  welded  as  one  body.  Roosevelt 
had  said  that  Spain's  inability  to  equip  her  ships  properly 
with  coal  and  ammunition  had  contributed  to  her  failure 
in  1898.  It  had  been  reasoned  also  that  in  the  event  of 
a  war  that  would  take  our  battleships  into  the  Pacific 
they  would  arrive  demoralized  as  did  the  Russian  ships 
in  1904  after  their  long  trip  culminating  in  the  battle  of 
Japan  Sea.  The  cruise  round  the  world  dissipated  all 
doubts  as  to  the  American  Navy's  ability  to  take  care  of 
itself  under  all  conditions  and  under  any  assignment  that 
might  be  made  of  it,  regardless  of  distance.  The  fleet  had 
proved  self-sustaining  in  repairs,  and  the  Bureau  of 
Equipment  at  Washington  had  been  able  to  solve  the 
problems  of  coal  and  general  supplies.  The  need  of  certain 
improvements  was  demonstrated,  notably  the  necessity 
of  providing  our  own  colliers  that  could  not  be  gotten 
from  other  nations  in  time  of  war  because  of  neutrality 
laws.  In  general,  as  one  historian  has  put  it,  "the  fleet 
had  found  itself,  the  men  had  got  the  'sea-habit,'  and  the 


272  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

vast  aggregation  had  become  a  unit  in  a  sense  such  as  had 
scarcely  ever  been  realized  before." 

From  Gibraltar  the  fleet  proceeded  across  the  Atlantic 
flying  "homeward  bound"  pennants.  The  great  ships 
that  had  steamed  out  of  Hampton  Roads  in  December 
1907  arrived  back  again  within  the  same  Virginian  capes 
on  February  22,  1909,  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
The  Father  of  Our  Country.  The  Nation  gave  her 
returned  champions  of  peace  a  notable  welcome. 
President  Roosevelt,  who  had  only  a  few  days  of  his  term 
remaining  until  the  inauguration  of  President-elect  Taft, 
again  made  the  journey  to  Hampton  Roads  to  congratu 
late  Admiral  Sperry  and  his  men  on  the  splendid  showing 
they  had  made  during  their  sixteen  months'  tour  in  foreign 
waters. 

"This  is  the  first  battle  fleet  that  has  ever  circum 
navigated  the  globe.  Those  who  perform  the  feat  again 
can  but  follow  in  your  footsteps,"  he  told  them.  Sum 
ming  up  his  address  the  President  said:  "As  a  war 
machine  the  fleet  comes  back  in  better  shape  than  it 
went  out.  In  addition,  you,  the  officers  and  men  of  this 
formidable  fighting  force,  have  shown  yourselves  the  best 
of  all  possible  ambassadors  and  heralds  of  peace.  Wher 
ever  you  have  landed  you  have  borne  yourselves  so  as  to 
make  us  at  home  proud  of  being  your  countrymen.  You 
have  shown  that  the  best  type  of  fighting  man  of  the  sea 
knows  how  to  appear  to  the  utmost  possible  advantage 
when  his  business  is  to  behave  himself  on  shore,  and  to 
make  a  good  impression  in  a  foreign  land.  We  are  proud 
of  all  the  ships  and  all  the  men  in  the  whole  fleet,  and  we 
welcome  you  home  to  the  country  whose  good  repute 
among  nations  has  been  raised  by  what  you  have  done." 

"Not  until   some  American  fleet  returns  victorious 


WHAT  HE  DID   FOR  THE  NAVY         273 

from  a  great  sea  battle  will  there  be  another  such  home 
coming,  another  such  sight  as  this.  I  drink  to  the  Amer 
ican  Navy ! "  This  was  the  toast  of  President  Roosevelt  as 
he  stood,  radiantly  happy,  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  review  in  Hampton  Roads.  He 
was  surrounded  by  the  admirals  and  captains  of  the 
sixteen  ships  that  had  just  been  welcomed  home. 

"We  stay-at-homes  also  drink  to  the  men  who  have 
made  us  prouder  than  ever  of  our  country,"  added  the 
President,  and  again  the  toast  was  pledged. 

He  was  elated  over  the  showing  of  the  fleet  and  took 
occasion  to  remind  the  naval  leaders  of  the  dire  proph 
ecies  that  had  been  made  as  to  the  success  of  the 
venture.  "Do  you  remember  the  prophecies  of  disaster?" 
he  asked.  "Well,  here  they  are,"  pointing  to  the  ships  in 
the  harbor,  "returning  after  fourteen  months  without  a 
scratch.  Isn't  it  magnificent?" 

In  turn  he  visited  the  four  division  flagships  of  the 
big  fleet  and  everywhere  was  cheered  by  the  sailors. 
"You  have  done  the  trick,"  he  exclaimed  to  one  group  of 
admirers.  "Other  nations  may  follow,  but  they've  got  to 
go  behind." 

The  cheering  broke  out  afresh  when  the  President 
declared  of  the  cruise  that  "nobody  after  this  will  forget 
that  the  American  coast  is  on  the  Pacific  as  well  as  on  the 
Atlantic." 

At  the  time  the  fleet  was  making  ready  for  its 
memorable  cruise,  the  President  had  seen  fit  to  remain 
silent  on  any  possible  political  or  diplomatic  significance 
that  the  voyage  might  have.  Subsequently,  however, 
speaking  of  the  broader  significance  of  the  voyage,  he 
said  that  it  was  the  most  important  service  that  he  had 
rendered  to  peace. 

18 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR 

WHEN  Roosevelt  became  President  in  1901,  the 
foremost  political  problem  of  the  country  was 
the  problem  of  big  business.  During  the  nine 
teenth  century  the  American  business  man  had  grown 
accustomed  to  receiving  from  the  national  government 
assistance,  but  never  restraint.  Vast  combinations  of 
capital  had  sprung  up  to  control  the  necessaries  of  life. 
The  great  corporations  which  produced  and  sold  such 
articles  as  steel,  oil,  sugar  and  beef  were  widely  and 
cordially  hated.  The  campaign  literature  of  the  time  was 
full  of  the  subject,  and  the  corpulent  silk-hatted  citizen 
who  represented  the  Trusts  was"  a  familiar  figure  in  the 
cartoons. 

i  NIn  Roosevelt's  first  message  to  Congress,  on  December 
3,  1901,  he  called  attention  to  the  situation.  No  legis 
lation  was  available  for  the  proper  restraint  of  corpora 
tions  doing  business  between  the  states  except  the 
Sherman  Act  of  1890/  and  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  famous  Knight  case  of  1895,  the  strength  of 
this  act  had  been  largely  impaired,  ^he  President 
realized  that  the  first  essential  was  publicity.  "In  the 
interest  of  the  public,"  he  said  in  his  message,  "the 
government  should  have  the  right  to  inspect  and  examine 
the  workings  of  the  great  corporations  engaged  in  inter 
state  business." 

^In    accordance    with    his    request,    Congress    finally 
passed  the  act  of  February  \4yl903,  creating  the  new 

(274) 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  275 

Departoent_Q£- Commerce  and  Labor..  This  department 
included  a  Bureau  of  Corporations,  presided  over  by  a 
Commissioner.  XThe  duty  of  the  bureau  was  to  investi- 
gate  the  organization,  conduct  and  management  of 
corporations  engaged  in  interstate  and  foreign  commerce,  , 
and  to  compile  and  publish  the  results  of  their  investi 
gations .;  James  R.  Garfield  was  the  first  Commissioner 
of  the  new  bureau.  When  he  finally  became  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  he  was  succeeded  by  Herbert  Knox  Smith. 
Both  of  these  men  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  an  unusual  degree,  and  the  work  which  they  did 
under  his  direction  was  of  great  and  lasting  value.  |  The 
bureau  first  investigated  such  enterprises  as  the  Standard 
Oil  Company,  the  American  Tobacco  Company  and  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation.  Upon  the  completion 
of  each  investigation  an  exhaustive  report  was  made  to 
the  President.  At  the  same  time  a  summary  of  the 
report,  covering  not  more  than  two  newspaper  columns, 
was  prepared  and  was  released  by  the  President  for 
publication  in  the  press  throughout  the  country.  Thus 
he  gathered  a  mass  of  information  on  great  public  eco 
nomic  questions  and  went  direct  to  the  people  with  it/f 
His  actions  raised  storms  of  approval  and  criticism; 
they  became  the  subjects  of  editorials,  of  cartoons  and  of 
private  and  public  comment  all  over  the  country,  and 
they  placed  the  entire  problem  of  American  industry  on 
a  new  level  for  intelligent  discussion. 

The  Sherman  Act  was  the  only  statutory  weapon  with 
which  to  attack  unlawful  combinations.)^  In  the  Knight 
case  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  a  corporation 
in  one  state  could  lawfully  acquire  all  the  stock  of  a 
corporation  in  another  state  and  thus  effectually  secure 
control  of  a  given  business.  Shortly  before  Roosevelt 


276  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

became  President,  an  arrangement  was  made  by  certain 
financiers,  to  obtain  control  of  the  railway  systems  in  the 
Northwest.  It  was  planned  to  form  a  corporation  to  be 
called  the  Northern  Securities  Company.  This  corpora 
tion  was  to  be  nothing  but  a  holding  company;  that  is,  it 
was  to  exist  simply  for  the  purpose  of  owning  the  stock  of 
the  principal  railroads  of  the  Northwest.  The  lawfulness 
of  this  scheme  was  apparently  settled  by  the  Knight 
decision. 

Attorney-General  Knox  advised  the  President  that  an 
effort  should  be  made  to  obtain  a  new  and  different 
decision  of  the  question.  Upon  Roosevelt's  direction, 
therefore,  suit  was  brought  to  dissolve  the  Northern 
Securities  Company,  and  the  Supreme  Court  in  1904, 
by  a  vote  of  five  to  four,  decided  in  favor  of  the  govern 
ment.  This  was  a  great  moral  victory  and  gave  to  the 
administration  and  to  the  people  new  confidence  in  the 
possibility  of  restraining  monopolies.  )Jt  led  to  a  series  of 
suits  against  the  General  Paper  Company,  the  so-called 
Beef  Trust,  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  the  American 
Tobacco  Company  and  many  others.  \  Although  the 
President  was  successful  in  most  of  these  cases,  the 
immediate  effect  of  the  litigation  was  less  important  than 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  conviction  that  the  regulation 
of  vast  business  enterprises  belonged  properly  to  the 
Federal  government:! 

But  the  power  given  the  President  by  the  Sherman 
law,  and  the  facts  gathered  for  him  by  the  Bureau  of 
Corporations,  did  not  meet  all  the  requirements  of  the 
situation.  As  time  went  on  and  the  problem  of  big 
business  pressed  more  and  more  upon  his  attention,  the 
President  became  convinced  that  executive  regulation 
should  take  the  place  of  judicial  regulation.  "The  mon- 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  277 

opolies,"  he  said,  "can,  although  in  rather  cumbrous 
fashion,  be  broken  up  by  lawsuits.  Great  business  com 
binations,  however,  cannot  possibly  be  made  useful 
instead  of  noxious  industrial  agencies  merely  by  lawsuits, 
and  especially  by  lawsuits  supposed  to  be  carried  on  for  / 
their  destruction  and  not  for  their  control  and  regulation.'*! 
During  the  latter  half  of  his  administration  he  repeatedly  \ 
urged  Congress  to  create  a  Federal  agency  for  the  regula 
tion  of  all  the  great  interstate  corporations,  including 
adequate  publicity  and  supervision  of  the  issue  of  secu 
rities.  He  was  convinced  that  big  combinations  had 
come  to  stay  and  that  they  should  be  regulated  and  not 
destroyed.  As  he  remarked  in  conversation  to  some  of  his 
friends,  "If  you  have  a  high-spirited  horse  that  occasion 
ally  runs  away,  there  are  two  remedies.  You  can  put  a 
curb  bit  on  him  and  hold  him  down;  or  you  can  take  an 
axe  and  knock  him  on  the  head  and  kill  him.  Either  way 
he  won't  run  again."  He  favored  the  use  of  the  bit  rather 
than  the  axe. 

In  the  numberless  conferences  between  the  President 
and  his  subordinates,  there  were  thrashed  over  all  sorts 
of  plans  for  the  control  of  corporate  power,  through 
national  supervision.  There  was  the  national  incorpo 
ration  plan,  which  had  too  many  legal  difficulties;  the 
Federal  license  plan,  which  would  have  required  the 
large  corporations  engaged  in  interstate  commerce  to 
secure  a  Federal  license  for  that  privilege,  and  to  comply 
with  various  conditions  attached  to  the  license,  and  there 
was  the  Federal  Trade  Commission  plan. 

The  substance  of  all  these  plans  was  the  same.  The 
President  was  convinced,  as  he  said  in  a  special  message 
of  April  27,  1908,  that  "some  body  or  bodies  in  the 
executive  service  should  be  given  power  to  pass  upon 


\ 


278  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

any  combination  or  agreement  in  relation  to  interstate 
commerce,  and  every  such  combination  or  agreement 
not  thus  approved  should  be  treated  as  in  violation  of 
law,  and  prosecuted  accordingly.  The  issuance  of  the 
securities  of  any  combination  doing  business  should  be 
under  the  supervision  of  the  national  government." 

But  Congress  was  not  willing  to  go  as  far  as  the 
President  asked,  and  he  was  bitterly  assailed  by  the 
beneficiaries  of  the  large  vested  interests.  His  proposal 
was  denounced  as  the  wild  dream  of  a  mad  enemy  of 
property  and  of  the  social  order.  But  he  was,  in  fact,  the 
friend  of  property,  not  its  enemy. 

As  he  said  himself,  "One  great  problem  that  we  have 
before  us  is  to  preserve  the  rights  of  property;  these  can 
only  be  preserved  if  we  remember  that  they  are  in  less 
jeopardy  from  the  socialist  and  the  anarchist  than  from 
the  predatory  man  of  wealth."  He  never  denounced 
wealth  itself  but  only  the  unsocial  acquisition  or  use  of  it. 

Few  incidents  of  his  administration  were  more  pictur 
esque  and  more  far-reaching  in  their  consequences  than 
the  prosecution  of  the  western  land  frauds.  During  the 
year  1903,  there  was  revealed  a  colossal  scheme  to  steal 
government  lands  in  the  West.  A  group  of  Calif  ornians  had 
made  a  practice  of  securing  title  to  public  land  by  fraud 
and  forgery.  The  criminals  were  men  of  high  position. 
Two  United  States  Senators,,  Burton  of  Kansas  and 
Mitchell  of  Oregon,  were  convicted  of  participation  in 
similar  schemes.  Mitchell,  although  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  received  fees  for  arguing  land 
cases.  When  charged  with  this  offense,  he  produced  a 
contract  with  his  partner  which  showed  that  the  partner 
received  all  of  the  fees  in  such  cases.  The  contract  was 
typewritten  on  a  piece  of  water-marked  paper  and  bore 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND   LABOR  279 

a  date  which  was  some  time  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the 
government's  investigation.  The  prosecution  proved 
that  paper  with  that  particular  water-mark  had  not  been 
procurable  at  the  time  when  the  contract  was  said  to 
have  been  made,  and  that  the  same  was  true  of  the  style 
of  typewriter  ribbon  which  had  been  used.  The  discovery 
of  these  facts  resulted  in  a  full  confession  by  the  man  who 
had  written  and  antedated  the  bogus  contract  at  the 
direction  of  his  two  employers. 

When  the  great  transcontinental  railways  were  built, 
they  received  for  their  encouragement  sections  of  land 
from  the  national  government.  Between  each  pair  of 
sections  so  given,  the  government  reserved  a  section  to 
itself,  so  that  many  square  miles  of  the  West  were  divided 
like  a  checkerboard  between  public  and  private  owner 
ship.  The  great  cattle  companies  bought  these  sections 
from  the  railroads  and  then  proceeded  to  fence  in  the 
entire  tract  including  government  land  as  well  as  railroad 
land.  When  settlers  came  to  take  up  homesteads  upon 
those  sections  which  formed  part  of  the  public  domain, 
they  found  themselves  surrounded  by  unlawfully  built 
fences  and  were,  in  some  cases,  intimidated  and  even 
killed  when  they  tried  to  assert  their  rights.  It  was 
estimated  that  five  million  acres  were  thus  illegally  fenced. 
Under  Roosevelt's  direction  this  evil  was  attacked  in  the 
criminal  courts  and  numerous  convictions  of  the  guilty 
parties  were  obtained. 

In  these  land  cases,  the  outstanding  figure,  beside  the 
President  himself,  was  Francis  J.  Heney,  who  was 
appointed  a  special  United  States  District  Attorney  at 
Portland,  Oregon,  and  whose  brilliant  and  tireless  work 
was  principally  responsible  for  the  government's  success. 

Another  story  well  illustrates  Roosevelt's  relentless 


280  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

pursuit  of  "the  predatory  man  of  wealth."  This  is  the 
story  of  the  great  sugar  frauds.  In  1904  a  government 
employee  named  Richard  Parr  came  to  the  President's 
Secretary,  William  Loeb,  Jr.,  and  told  him  that  he 
suspected  that  the  American  Sugar  Refining  Company 
was  defrauding  the  government  in  the  collection  of 
import  duties.  The  matter  was  reported  to  the  President 
and  upon  his  direction  Parr  received  a  special  appointment 
in  the  Treasury  Department.  He  was  finally  assigned  to 
work  upon  the  New  York  docks  in  March,  1907. 

Working  with  an  assistant,  he  arrived,  after  some 
weeks,  at  the  definite  conclusion  that  fraud  was  somehow 
being  practiced  upon  the  government.  Each  lot  of  sugar 
as  it  was  unloaded  from  the  ships  was  weighed  on  a 
large  platform  scale.  At  the  edge  of  the  scale  a  government 
weigher  and  a  company  checker  sat  side  by  side.  Parr's 
assistant  noticed  that  whenever  a  lot  of  sugar  was 
put  on  the  scales  the  company  checker  reached  down  to 
one  side  in  a  peculiar  manner  with  his  left  hand.  Parr 
discovered  that  on  the  side  of  each  of  the  seventeen  scales 
there  was  a  small  hole  containing  a  spring,  and  that  by 
pressure  on  this  spring  with  his  left  hand  the  company 
checker  reduced  the  weight  of  every  load  of  sugar  that 
went  on  the  scales.  Of  course,  since  the  amount  of  duty 
was  based  on  the  weight  of  sugar,  this  practice  resulted  in 
cheating  the  United  States  out  of  part  of  the  duties.  The 
practice  had  been  going  on  for  six  years,  and  it  was 
estimated  that  the  American  Sugar  Refining  Company 
had  escaped  duties  on  seventy-five  million  pounds  of 
sugar  during  that  time. 

The  result  of  this  investigation  was  the  conviction 
of  those  immediately  responsible  for  the  fraud,  and  the 
payment  by  the  Sugar  Company  to  the  government  of 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  281 

two  million  dollars  in  settlement  of  the  claim  for  past 
duties.  Throughout  the  whole  case  Roosevelt  kept  in 
close  touch  with  what  was  going  on.  On  one  occasion  an 
attempt  was  made  to  get  Parr  out  of  the  way,  but  the 
President  took  the  matter  in  hand  and  directed  Secretary 
Cortelyou  to  see  that  Parr  was  retained  until  he  completed 
his  investigation.  Henry  L.  Stimson,  United  States 
District  Attorney  at  New  York,  took  charge  of  the  civil 
and  criminal  proceedings  with  complete  success.  The 
President  allowed  nothing  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
investigation  and  no  official  of  the  company  was  so 
highly  placed  as  to  relieve  him  of  prosecution. 

Roosevelt's  enemies  among  the  "  malefactors  of  great 
wealth"  represented  him  as  the  tireless  and  consistent 
enemy  of  all  great  combinations  of  property.  The  story 
of  his  connection  with  the  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron 
matter  is,  in  itself,  a  refutation  of  such  a  charge. 

The  famous  panic  of  1907  began  on  October  2£d, 
when  the  Knickerbocker  Trust  Company  of  New  York 
closed  its  doors.  A  run  on  other  New  York  trust  com 
panies  immediately  began  and  in  a  short  time  the  panic 
had  extended  through  the  entire  country  and  threatened 
wide-spread  disaster.  The  President  and  Secretary 
Cortelyou  of  the  Treasury  kept  in  hourly  communication 
with  New  York  and  from  time  to  time  took  such  action 
as  they  thought  might  serve  to  allay  the  panic.  The 
situation,  however,  rapidly  grew  critical. 

On  Monday,  November  4th,  as  the  President  was  at 
breakfast,  he  was  informed  that  Henry  C.  Frick  and 
Judge  E.  H.  Gary,  representing  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  were  waiting  to  see  him  in  the  Executive 
office.  He  immediately  joined  them  and  asked  Mr. 
Root,  the  Secretary  of  State,  to  be  present  at  the  inter- 


282  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

view  in  the  absence  of  Attorney-General  Bonaparte. 
Frick  and  Gary  told  him  that  an "  important  New  York 
firm  was  on  the  verge  of  failure  and  would  undoubtedly 
go  under  during  the  ensuing  week  unless  help  came.  This 
firm  owned  the  majority  of  the  stock  of  the  Tennessee 
Coal  and  Iron  Company,  which  at  the  time  had  little  or 
no  market  value.  It  had  been  suggested  that  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  should  buy  this  stock,  paying 
for  it  with  its  own  stock  which  was  of  undoubted  strength 
and  value.  Gary  and  Frick  represented  to  the  President 
that  they  wished  to  do  this  not  primarily  for  the  purpose 
of  enlarging  the  Steel  Corporation's  holdings,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  averting  a  further  spread  of  the  panic.  Before 
taking  such  a  step,  however,  they  wished  the  President's 
assurance  that  it  would  not  form  the  basis  of  an  attack 
upon  the  Steel  Corporation  for  a  violation  of  the  Anti- 
Trust  Law. 

The  President  had  to  make  up  his  mind  immediately 
so  that  the  suggested  action,  if  taken,  might  be  announced 
at  the  opening  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  that 
morning.  The  United  States  Steel  Corporation  owned 
less  than  sixty  per  cent  of  the  steel  properties  in  the 
United  States  and  the  acquisition  of  the  Tennessee 
property  would  not  raise  this  proportion  above  sixty  per 
cent.  The  President  realized  the  value  of  the  suggested 
course  of  action  and  did  not  feel  that  such  a  slight  increase 
in  the  size  of  the  corporation's  holdings  could  effect  the 
determination  of  the  question  of  monopoly.  Accordingly, 
before  the  interview  closed,  he  dictated  a  note  to  the 
Attorney-General  setting  forth  the  facts  as  I  have  related 
them,  and  stating  that  Gary  and  Frick  had  told  him  that 
they  did  not  want  to  buy  the  stock  if  he  thought  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  done.  "I  answered,"  he  said,  "that  while 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  283 

of  course  I  could  not  advise  them  to  take  the  action 
proposed,  I  felt  it  no  public  duty  of  mine  to  interpose 
any  objections." 

The  same  morning  Mr.  Bonaparte  came  to  see  the 
President,  acknowledged  receipt  of  the  note  and  concurred 
in  his  judgment  in  the  matter.  The  Tennessee  stock 
was  bought  by  the  Steel  Corporation,  and  by  this  means 
an  important  step  was  taken  in  the  checking  of  the  panic. 
Some  time  after  the  danger  was  safely  passed,  attacks 
upon  the  President  began  for  his  share  in  what  had 
happened.  He  wras  accused  of  favoring  the  Steel  Corpo 
ration  and  was  bitterly  assailed  from  many  quarters. 
But  he  had  as  a  memorandum  his  note  to  the  Attorney- 
General,  which,  together  with  the  openness  of  the  entire 
transaction,  effectually  refuted  any  charge  of  unfairness. 

Roosevelt  was  the  consistent  friend  of  labor,  but  not 
so  as  to  prevent  his  friendship  with  capital  also.  'The 
White  House  doors,"  he  said,  "will  open  just  as  easily 
to  the  laboring  man  as  to  the  capitalist — and  no  easier." 
He  repeatedly  stated  his  belief  in  the  usefulness  of  labor 
organizations.  He  advocated  the  employers'  liability  act, 
shorter  hours  of  work  on  the  railroads,  a  workmen's 
compensation  law,  child  labor  laws,  and  other  measures 
for  the  benefit  of  the  man  who  works  with  his  hands. 
But  he  was  careful  never  to  pose  as  primarily  the  friend 
and  champion  of  labor.  His  principle  was  that  labor  and 
capital  alike  should  have  the  square  deal.  "More  than 
that,"  he  said,  "no  man  is  entitled  to,  and  less  than  that 
no  man  shall  have." 

When  William  A.  Miller  was  discharged  from  the 
Government  Printing  Office,  because  he  was  a  non-union 
man,  the  President  took  the  matter  up  personally,  and 
ordered  Miller  to  be  reinstated.  Samuel  Gompers,  with 


284  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  members  of  the  Executive  Council  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  called  to  protest.  He  told  them  that 
his  decision  was  final  and  said:  "I  must  govern  my  action 
by  the  laws  of  the  land,  which  I  am  sworn  to  administer, 
and  which  differentiate  any  case  in  which  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  is  a  party  from  all  other  cases 
whatsoever.  These  laws  are  enacted  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  people,  and  can  not  and  must  not  be  construed  as 
permitting  discrimination  against  some  of  the  people." 

Here  was  a  splendid  chance  to  win  the  sympathy  and 
the  votes  of  labor  simply  by  permitting  the  discharge 
of  Miller  to  stand,  but  Roosevelt  never  reckoned  the 
effect  of  any  public  action  on  his  own  career.  He  did 
what  he  thought  right  and  let  the  consequences  take 
care  of  themselves. 

His  campaign  to  bring  the  great  corporations  within 
the  power  of  the  Federal  government  incurred  for  him 
the  enmity  of  many  of  the  beneficiaries  of  big  business. 
On  the  other  hand,  his  insistence  upon  the  lawful  rights 
of  property,  and  his  condemnation  of  violent  and  extra- 
legal  attacks  upon  property,  earned  for  him  the  denun 
ciations  of  the  labor  extremists.  During  the  winter  of 
1907,  the  attacks  of  both  of  these  classes  were  directed 
upon  him.  He  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  reaction 
aries  by  his  trust  program.  The  extremists  on  the  other 
side  hated  him  because  of  the  Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone 
affair. 

In  1899  Governor  Frank  Steunenberg,  of  Idaho,  had 
called  in  the  United  States  troops  to  repress  disorder  in 
the  Coeur  de'Alene  mining  district.  The  troops  employed 
the  most  drastic  measures  and  drove  hundreds  of  miners 
out  of  the  country.  Among  these  was  one  named  Harry 
Orchard.  Six  years  later,  on  December  30,  1905,  as 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  285 

Steunenberg  was  leaving  his  house  at  Caldwell,  Idaho,  he 
was  blown  to  pieces  by  a  bomb  which  had  been  placed 
beneath  his  gate.  Orchard  was  arrested  on  suspicion 
and  confessed  the  crime.  He  had  on  his  person  papers 
showing  his  connection  with  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  and  apparently  implicating  Charles  H.  Moyer, 
the  president  of  that  organization,  William  D.  Hay  wood, 
its  secretary  and  treasurer,  and  George  A.  Pettibone, 
a  member  of  its  executive  committee. 

These  three  men  were  in  Colorado,  and  the  authorities 
of  Idaho  resorted  to  an  extraordinary  and  high-handed 
proceeding  to  bring  them  back  to  the  scene  of  the  crime. 
Although  they  were  in  no  sense  fugitives  from  justice, 
the  Governor  of  Colorado  was  persuaded  secretly  to 
honor  a  requisition;  and  upon  Saturday  night,  after  the 
courts  were  closed,  and  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was 
probably  unobtainable,  the  three  men  \vere  kidnapped  and 
hurried  on  a  special  train  to  Idaho  without  an  oppor 
tunity  to  consult  counsel,  or  to  notify  their  families.  This 
enterprise  later  received  the  sanction  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  and  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone 
consequently  had  to  await  their  trial  in  Idaho.  Meanwhile, 
of  course,  excitement  in  the  whole  mining  country  ran 
high.  The  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  which  was  an 
off-shoot  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  WTorld,  numbered 
among  its  members  and  officers  a  number  of  men  who 
were  ready  to  go  to  any  extreme  to  attain  their  objects. 
In  the  neighboring  State  of  Nevada,  the  gold-field  mining 
district  became  divided  into  two  hostile  camps.  The 
miners,  whose  anger  had  been  aroused  by  the  treatment 
of  the  officers  of  their  organization,  constantly  clashed 
with  the  watchmen  and  guards  who  were  armed  and 
paid  by  the  owners  of  the  mines.  It  was  in  this  state  of 


286  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

affairs  that  the  President,  in  a  letter,  alluded  to  Mr. 
Harriman,  the  railroad  magnate,  ancl  to  Moyer,  Haywood, 
and  Debs,  as  being  equally  "undesirable  citizens."  He 
was  immediately  attacked  by  the  Wall  Street  newspapers 
on  the  one  hand,  and  by  what  he  termed  "miscalled 
socialists  who  had  anarchistic  leanings,"  on  the  other. 
He  bore  these  attacks  in  silence  until  he  received  from 
Honore  Jaxson,  of  Chicago,  chairman  of  the  Cook 
County  Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone  Conference,  a  letter 
which  he  could  not  forbear  to  answer.  In  this  letter 
Jaxson  protested  vehemently  that  the  President  was 
attempting  to  influence  in  advance  the  trial  of  Moyer 
and  his  associates. 

The  President's  answer  was  characteristic,  and  the 
satisfaction  which  it  gave  him  to  write  it  is  apparent  in 
every  line.  He  observed  that  his  correspondent's  letter 
bore  the  headlines:  "Death — cannot — will  not — and  shall 
not  claim  our  brothers!"  and  suggested  that  this 
announced  in  advance  an  intention  to  tolerate  only  one 
verdict  in  the  case.  As  to  his  own  language,  he  said :  "  It 
is  simple  absurdity  to  suppose  that  because  any  man  is 
on  trial  for  a  given  offense,  he  is,  therefore,  to  be  freed 
from  all  criticism  upon  his  general  conduct  and  manner  of 
life."  He  repeated  that  he  considered  Messrs.  Moyer  and 
Hay  wood  undesirable  citizens,  and  concluded  thus:  "So 
far  as  in  my  power  lies  I  shall  uphold  justice,  whether  the 
man  accused  of  guilt  has  behind  him  the  wealthiest 
corporations,  the  greatest  aggregations  of  riches  in  the 
country,  or  whether  he  has  behind  him  the  most  influ 
ential  labor  organizations  in  the  country." 

After  a  long  trial  Haywood  was  acquitted  on  July  28, 
1907,  for  lack  of  evidence.  The  only  testimony  against 
him  was  that  of  Harry  Orchard,  the  self-confessed 


BIG  BUSINESS  AND  LABOR  287 

murderer.  But  this  did  not  end  the  agitation  in  the 
mining  districts.  The  situation  in  Nevada  grew  more  and 
more  acute  until  Governor  Sparks  felt  unable  to  handle 
it  any  longer.  The  Legislature  of  Nevada  had  failed  to 
provide  for  a  State  Police  and  the  Governor  finally  asked 
for  Federal  intervention.  On  December  7,  1907,  the 
United  States  troops  arrived  from  California  and  order 
was  immediately  restored.  Then  the  Governor  wanted 
the  army  to  stay  indefinitely  to  do  his  police  work"  for 
him,  but  the  President  had  no  such  idea.  He  had,  on 
December  llth,  sent  a  commission  consisting  of  Lawrence 
0.  Murray,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
Charles  P.  Neill,  Commissioner  of  Labor,  and  Herbert 
Knox  Smith,  Commissioner  of  Corporations,  to  inves 
tigate,  with  the  hope  of  finally  allaying  the  difficulty. 
To  Governor  Sparks'  request  he  replied,  on  December 
28th,  that  if  the  Governor  would  immediately  call  a  session 
of  the  Legislature  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  State 
Police  he  would  order  the  troops  to  stay  for  a  short  while, 
but  that  if  the  Legislature  were  not  convened  the  troops 
would  return  to  California  immediately.  The  result  was 
that  the  Governor  called  an  extra  session  of  the  Legis 
lature,  the  State  Police  Act  was  passed  and  the  troops 
withdrew,  leaving  the  locality  reasonably  quiet. 

Roosevelt's  attitude  toward  big  business  and  toward 
labor  was  simplicity  itself.  The  average  citizen  under 
stood  it  and  approved  it.  Neither  wealth  nor  poverty 
was  to  him  a  recommendation  in  itself.  Neither  trusts 
nor  labor  unions  w^ere  exempt  from  the  restraints  of  the 
law.  Trust  magnate  and  labor  agitator,  capitalist  and 
wage-earner,  they  were  all  alike  American  citizens,  to 
whom  he  sought  only  to  apply  the  rule  of  even-handed 
justice. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

CONSERVATION  OF  NATURAL  RESOURCES 

OF  all  the  movements  which  Roosevelt  preached, 
and  launched  and  put  into  practice  perhaps  the 
most  far-reaching  in  its  permanent  importance 
was  "the  conservation  of  natural  resources."  More 
than  any  other  it  received  his  constant  and  sympa 
thetic  attention.  The  word  conservation  came  into 
general  use  during  the  latter  part  of  his  second  ad 
ministration,  j^to  denote  foresight  and  restraint  in  man's 
use  of  the  primary  sources  of  wealth — the  earth's  surface, 
the  forests  and  waters  upon  it,  the  minerals  beneath  it, 
and  their  incidents,  and  to  denote  the  securing  of  their 
highest  utilization  and  their  equal  enjoyment  by  all  the 
people  of  present  and  future  generations. 

But  the  foresight  and  restraint  of  the  individual  is 
helpless  before  the  destructive  and  monopolizing  power 
of  modern  industrialism  equipped  by  science,  organized 
in  vast  masses  of  capital  and  stimulated  by  the  short 
sighted  greed  of  unrestricted  competition.  Therefore 
Roosevelt  insisted  that  they  must  be  controlled  by 
public  authority  wherever  constitutionally  possible^ 

So  long  as  he  was  in  the  White  House,  no  influence 
however  powerful  could  reach  and  dislodge  the  honest, 
energetic,  and  competent  subordinate  whom  the  struggle 
for  national  control  had  brought  into  conflict  with 
powerful  water-power  or  timber  grabbers,  with  coal 
barons,  or  with  fraudulent  absorbers  of  the  public  lands. 
His  intense  interest  in  the  matter  brought  bureau  chiefs, 

(288) 


CONSERVATION  289 

and  officials  even  lower,  into  personal  touch  with  him 
where  other  Presidents  have  been  limited  to  Cabinet 
officers,  often  of  smaller  caliber  than  their  subordinates. 

The  beginnings  of  what  afterward  grew  into  conser 
vation,  had  been  laid  in  two  fields  of  Federal  activity 
before  Roosevelt  became  President — irrigation  and  for- 
elstry;  and  this  chapter  could  not  be  intelligently 
written,  unless  the  story  of  his  active  induction  into  the 
pursuit  of  conservation  were  coupled  with  the  names  of 
two  Pennsylvanians — Gifford  Pinchot,  the  founder  of 
the  United  States  Forest  Service,  and  F.  H.  Newell, 
founder  of  the  United  States  Reclamation  Service. 

Hardly  had  Roosevelt  come  to  Washington  in  Sep 
tember,  1901,  when  conservation  was  brought  to  his 
attention  by  Pinchot  and  Newell.  They  wanted  him 
to  adopt  the  reclamation  of  arid  lands  as  his  first 
policy  and  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  reclamation  act 
that  would  make  millions  of  acres  of  desert  bloom,  and 
yield  not  only  food  but  homes  and  vigorous  citizens. 

-To  this  end  they  suggested  that  the  United  States 
itself  should  build  the  reservoirs,  canals  and  ditches 
of  irrigation  systems,  often  costing  millions  of  dollars. 
They  pointed  out  that  private  enterprise  was  not  equal 
to  such  a  gigantic  task,  and  that  only  the  government 
could  be  trusted  to  allot  the  reclaimed  land  and  the 
necessary  water-rights  to  bona  fide  settlers  on  just  terms. 
It  was  vitally  important  that  the  right  to  the  water 
should  be  turned  over  to  the  irrigation  settler  as  part  and 
parcel  of  his  land,  so  that  no  perpetual  tribute  could  be 
exacted  from  him  and  his  children  for  that  which  is  as 
necessary  to  irrigated  land  as  the  rain  clouds  are  to  our 
Eastern  farms. 

Seeing  all  this  as  only  a  man  familiar  with  Western 

19 


290  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

conditions  could  see  it,  Roosevelt  asked  Pinchot  and 
Newell  to  prepare  a  passage  relating  to  the  subject  for 
his  first  message  to  Congress,  in  December,  1901.  Later, 
his  backing  of  the  bill  for  a  Reclamation  Service,  prepared 
and  introduced  with  his  approval,  was  so  vigorous  that 
the  Reclamation  Act  became  a  law  in  June,  1902,  against 
the  opposition  of  the  usual  quota  of  reactionary  Congress 
men.  Newell  was  promptly  put  in  charge  of  the  service. 

By  the  close  of  Roosevelt's  administration  $80,000,000 
had  been  spent  to  reclaim  many  acres  of  arid  public 
lands  on  which  there  have  been  established  thousands 
of  farm  homes  of  strong  American  citizens,  and  hundreds 
of  smiling  villages  and  towns.  All  the  money  spent  is 
required  by  the  law  to  be  returned  to  the  government 
in  reasonably  small  yearly  instalments. 

The  President's  right-hand  man  in  all  these  matters 
was  Gifford  Pinchot.  During  his  entire  Presidency, 
the  doors  of  the  White  House  and  of  his  mind  and  heart 
were  gladly  open  to  the  Forester  at  all  times  and  to 
any  extent.  Of  Pinchot,  he  has  said: 

"Gifford  Pinchot  is  the  man  to  whom  the  nation 
owes  most  for  what  has  been  accomplished  as  regards 
the  preservation  of  the  natural  resources  of  our  country. 
He  led,  and  indeed,  during  its  most  vital  period 
embodied,  the  fight  for  the  preservation,  through  use 
of  our  forests.  He  played  one  of  the  leading  parts  in 
the  effort  to  make  the  national  government  the  chief 
instrument  in  developing  the  irrigation  of  the  arid 
West.  He  was  the  foremost  leader  in  the  great  struggle 
to  coordinate  all  our  social  and  governmental  forces 
in  the  effort  to  secure  the  adoption  of  a  rational  and 
far-seeing  policy  for  securing  the  conservation  of  all 
our  national  resources." 


CONSERVATION  291 

"VRoosevelt's  great  contributions  to  forest  conserva 
tion  were  two  laws  which  could  not  have  been  passed 
except  for  his  advocacy,  the  Forest  Transfer  Act  of 
1905,  and  the  Forest  Homestead  Act  of  1906,  beside  a 
multitude  of  effective  executive  actions. 

It  took  nearly  three  years  and  a  half  to  wring  the 
Forest  Transfer  Act  from  Congress.  In  the  meantime 
the  President  was  not  idle.  The  best  and  most  accessible 
timber  lands  had  already  passed  into  private  ownership; 
but  very  much  remained.  Pinchot's  youngsters  were 
turned  loose  in  the  mountains  of  the  West.  From 
the  opening  of  spring  until  the  winter  snows  barred 
them  out  they  explored  the  ranges  from  Canada  to 
the  Mexican  lin&  Singly  and  in  small  parties,  with 
saddle  horse,  and  pack  train,  they  ran  a  race  with 
the  timber  grabbers,  sometimes  neck  and  neck,  the 
telegraphic  orders  for  withdrawal  occasionally  beating 
the  filings  of  the  timbermen  to  the  local  land  office  by 
a  narrow  margin  of  minutes  only.  The  work  continued 
for  two  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Transfer  Act — 
^-Roosevelt  issuing  over  a  hundred  and  eighty  forest 
reserve  proclamations  in  the  years  1905  to  1907,  and  over 
a  hundred  and  ninety  in  the  years  1907  to  19091/  When 
a  congressional  "rider"  stopped  most  of  the  work  on 
March  4,  1907,  the  main  prize  was  won.  Thus  to  his 
vision,  energy  and  courage  the  people  of  the  United 
States  owe  their  magnificent  estate  covering  all  the  great 
mountain  regions  of  the  West,  an  estate  equal  in  area  to  all 
the  states  touching  the  Atlantic  from  Maine  to  Virginia,  in 
clusive,  with  Vermont  and  West  Virginia  for  good  measure. 

By  appointment  of  inter-departmental  commissions 
to  report  on  the  organization  of  the  scientific  work  of 
the  government,  on  the  business  methods  of  the  depart- 


292  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ments,  and  on  the  administration  of  the  public  land 
laws — each  commission  suggested,  organized,  and 
directed  by  Pinchot — Roosevelt  was  able  to  report 
to  Congress  well  thought-out  recommendations  con 
cerning  changes  needed  for  producing  greater  executive 
efficiency,  particularly  the  unifying  of  the  government's 
forest  work.  When,  on  February  1,  1905,  the  Transfer 
Act  became  a  law,  the  "Bureau  of  Forestry"  was 
re-named  "The  Forest  Service,"  to  indicate  its  object 
and  intent  to  serve  the  people  in  forest  matters,  and  a 
little  later  the  forest  reserves  were  renamed  "National 
Forests"  in  token  that  their  resources  of  all  kinds, 
instead  of  being  kept  away  from  the  people,  were  oppned 
for  use  and  made  ever  more  and  more  accessible,  as 
Roosevelt  so  fully  and  continuously  advocated. 

After  the  transfer  of  the  national  forest  to  the  For 
est  Service  their  administration  became  efficient  and 
complete.  Reasonable  charges  were  made  for  the  use 
of  any  of  their  natural  resources,  wrongful  cutting  of 
national  forest  timber  was  detected,  punished,  and 
stopped,  and  fraudulent  mineral  entries  made  illegally 
to  obtain  valuable  timber  or  water-power  locations 
were  prevented.  In  short,  Nthe  national  forests  were 
managed  for  the  public  good,  firmly,  but  good-naturedly.^ 
These  activities  were  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  great 
timber  barons,  to  the  sheep  and  cattle  kings,  and  to  the 
water-power  corporations.  Attacks  lasting  many  days 
at  a  time  were  made  on  the  Forester  and  the  Forest 
Service  each  year  when  the  appropriation  bill  came 
up  in  the  Senate.  For  days  at  a  time  the  battle  would 
rage  with  few  active  on  the  side  of  conservation  except 
some  poorly  prepared  Senators  held  in  the  firing  line 
by  the  influence  of  the  President. 


CONSERVATION  293 

^Roosevelt's  desire  to  make  the  forests  in  every 
way  available  to  the  people  for  use  is  exemplified 
by  his  advocacy  of  the  Forest  Homestead  Act  which 
became  a  law  in  1906.  Under  this  act  every  spot  and 
tract  in  the  national  forests  that  was  suited  to  agri 
culture  was  opened  for  home-making.  This,  coupled 
with  the  free  gift  of  grazing  and  timber  privileges  to 
the  extent  of  the  domestic  needs  of  the  settlers  in  and 
near  national  forests,  and  the  giving  of  preference  in 
grazing  rights  to  nearby  residents — together  with  the 
courtesy  and  helpfulness  of  Forest  Rangers  to  the  ever 
growing  number  of  vacationists  and  health  and  pleasure 
seekers — won  the  hearts  of  the  honest  residents  in  and 
near  the  national  forests,  and  set  this  great  phase  of 
conservation  firmly  and  permanently  on  its  feet. 

An  amusing  incident  illustrates  Roosevelt's  use  of 
his  right  and  power  as  an  executive  to  conserve  the 
people's  interest.  In  1907  the  foes  of  forestry  in  Congress 
put  a  rider  on  the  appropriation  bill  for  the  Forest 
Service  taking  away  the  President's  power  to  proclaim 
further  national  forests  in  the  six  States  of  Montana, 
Wyoming,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Oregon  and  Washington. 
If  Roosevelt  vetoed  the  bill  because  of  the  rider,  the 
activities  not  only  of  the  Forest  Service,  but  of  the 
entire  Agricultural  Department  would  be  at  an  end. 
If  he  signed  the  bill,  millions  of  acres  of  mountain  for 
ests  would  be  lost  to  the  national  forests  and  the 
people.  However,  after  the  harmful  rider  was  accepted 
by  the  Senate,  Roosevelt  still  had  power  to  create 
national  forests  until  the  bill  became  a  law  by  receiving 
his  signature  at  any  time  up  to  noon  of  March  4th. 

Without  any  hesitation  and  with  a  joyfully  clear 
conscience  he  signed  proclamations  creating  sixteen 


294  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

million  acres  more  of  national .  forest  land  in  the 
six  states,  on  data  supplied  promptly  by  the  Forest 
Service,  before  he  tied  his  hands  by  signing  the  act. 
When  the  active  opponents  to  forestry  woke  up  to 
what  had  happened,  they  descended  on  Roosevelt  in 
a  body  to  express  their  anger  at  his  action.  But  when 
they  filed  into  his  office  and  saw  the  good-humored 
twinkle  hi  his  unflinching  eye,  their  spokesman,  Senator 
Carter  of  Montana,  could  nurse  his  wrath  no  longer. 
He  broke  into  a  hearty  laugh,  joined  in  by  all  but  one 
of  the  other  Senators,  and  extending  his  hand  cordially 
said:  "It  isn't  any  use.  We  came  to  jump  all  over  you, 
but  can't  say  anything  except  that  you  put  a  good  one 
over  on  us  this  time." 

The  general  mineral  laws  of  the  United  States  were 
and  are  almost  hopeless,  but  Roosevelt  did  great  things 
for  conserving  the  coal  land,  the  best  of  which  was 
rapidly  being  gobbled  up  at  nominal  prices  by  great 
combinations  or  trusts,  under  the  guise  of  the  letter  of 
the  law,  but  often  contrary  to  both  its  letter  and  spirit. 
Upon  report  of  Pinchot's  "Public  Land  Commission/' 
Roosevelt  caused  some  notable  suits,  both  civil  and 
criminal,  to  be  instituted  against  large  companies  which 
had  obtained  coal  land  illegally.  But  this  merely 
scratched  the  surface  of  the  difficulty,  and  so,  after 
obtaining  favorable  opinions  from  Woodruff  and  other 
law  officers  of  the  government,  he  withdrew  from  coal 
entry  many  million  acres  of  coal  lands  on  the  public 
domain. 

This  action  and  other  similar  withdrawals  of  oil 
lands  and  water-power  sites  caused  more  furore  among 
certain  big  business  interests  than  any  other  one  thing 
that  Roosevelt  did.  It  was  decried  as  illegal,  but  it  is 


CONSERVATION  295 

noteworthy  that  it  was  long  before  any  suit  was  ever 
brought  to  let  the  courts  decide  its  legality.  The  business 
interests  involved  were  so  great  that  such  suits  would 
have  been  brought  if  there  had  been  any  hope  of  success. 
At  last  a  withdrawal  of  oil  lands  was  contested,  and 
the  President's  action  was  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

Roosevelt's  fairness  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he 
asked  Congress  to  pass  an  act  for  leasing  reasonably, 
but  not  unreasonably,  large  areas  of  the  coal  land  to 
any  one  mining  company  or  person.  Congress  adjourned 
without  passing  the  leasing  bill,  and  then  Roosevelt 
had  the  coal  land  valued  by  the  Geological  Survey, 
and  as  fast  as  the  price  per  acre  in  different  sections 
was  determined,  he  abrogated  the  withdrawal  for  the 
area  thus  valued  and  turned  the  land  back  to  entry, 
so  as  not  to  interfere  with  legitimate  mining  enterprise. 

The  conservation  of  water  power  for  the  public 
was  another  of  Roosevelt's  great  achievements.  The 
Forest  Service,  in  its  care  of  the  national  forests,  soon 
came  into  conflict  with  big  water-power  corporations 
financed  in  New  York,  Boston  and  Philadelphia^  but 
usually  ofGcered  in  their  initial  stages  by  western  pro 
moters.  The  mountain  snows  and  springs  gave  streams. 
The  slopes  gave  fall.  The  promoters  and  bankers  wanted 
to  buy  exclusive  and  perpetual  ownership  of  both  at 
a  nominal  price.  The  law  authorized  the  government 
to  grant  only  revocable  permits  and  seemed  to  give 
power  to  impose  conditions  in  them,  vine  Forest  Serv 
ice  drafted  legislation  to  authorize  fifty-year  leases  on 
conditions  to  be  agreed  upon  with  the  lessees.  In  the 
mean  time  the  Service  imposed  the  conditions,  including  a 
small  rental  charge  on  the  permits  as  each  was  issued:  I 

Certain  corporations  raised  the  usual  cry  of  illegality 


296  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

and  appealed  to  the  Attorney-General.  He  decided 
against  them.  Instead  of  going  to  the  courts  they 
appealed  to  Congress.  Their  Boston  lawyers  drafted 
a  bill  granting  the  water-power  sites  outright  to  the 
first  applicant  at  a  nominal  price.  It  was  introduced 
in  the  Senate  by  Senator  Crane  of  Massachusetts,  in 
the  House  by  Mr.  Mondell  of  Wyoming.  Many  other 
bills  of  like  effect  were  introduced.  It  seemed  that 
the  Forest  Service  policy  was  to  be  swept  away.  Roose 
velt  intervened.  In  a  message  transmitting  the  report 
of  the  Inland  Waterways  Commission,  he  exposed  the 
true  character  of  these  bills.  That  killed  them. 

From  that  day  to  this  the  great  power  corporations 
have  blocked  all  water-power  leasing  bills,  but  leasing 
has  nevertheless  gone  on  under  the  old  revocable  permits 
until  water-power  development  in  the  mountain  and 
Pacific  states  has  exceeded  in  intensity  that  in  all  other 
parts  of  the  country.  Years  after  he  began  it,  the  legal 
ity  of  Roosevelt's  permit  system  came  before  the 
Supreme  Court  and  was  upheld. 

Besides  the  mountain  streams,  another  great  source 
of  water  power  is  the  navigable  rivers  of  the  country. 
A  dam  may  often  improve  the  navigation  of  a  river, 
while  developing  water  power.  All  matters  of  naviga 
tion  and  related  river  improvement  fall  within  Federal 
control.  The  conservationists  had  known  the  close 
relation  between  forests  and  stream  flow.  They  came 
to  see  each  river  system  of  the  country  as  a  unit,  and 
all  of  them  as  capable  of  improvement  under  a  single 
comprehensive  plan.  Pinchot  proposed  to  Roosevelt 
an  investigation  to  formulate  a  sound  waterways  policy, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1907  an  executive  order  created 
the  Inland  Waterwavs  Commission. 


CONSERVATION  297 

The  Inland  Waterways  Commission,  seeing  the  inter 
relation  of  waters  and  other  natural  resources,  advised 
Roosevelt  to  call  a  conference  of  all  the  state  governors  and 
of  numerous  other  delegates  to  discuss  the  conservation 
of  natural  resources  in  all  its  aspects.  He  did  so  at  once. 
The  conference  was  held  at  the  White  House  in  May, 
1908.  At  this  conference  the  conservation  movement 
as  a  complete  whole  came  before  the  country.  The 
conference  recommended  that  the  President  create  a 
Conservation  Commission  to  take  stock  of  all  natural 
resources,  and  of  the  rate  of  their  exhaustion  and  waste. 
This  was  done  by  executive  order.  The  Commission 
was  made  up  of  department  officials  and  members 
of  Congress.  The  experts,  resources,  and  information  of 
all  departments  were  put  at  its  disposal.  Its  report, 
transmitted  to  Congress  in  December,  1908,  was  the 
first  inventory  of  natural  resources  ever  taken  by  any 
nation  and  attracted  world-wide  attention.  The  report 
advised  a  National  Conservation  Conference  to  discuss 
its  recommendations.  This  was  held  in  Washington 
in  February,  1909.  Roosevelt  supported  it  and  spoke. 

One  more  notable  gathering — the  North  American 
Conservation  Conference,  made  up  of  delegates  from 
the  United  States,  Canada  and  Mexico,  was  called  by 
Roosevelt  and  held  during  his  administration.  From  it 
the  vigorous  conservation  movement  of  Canada  had  its 
birth. 

The  charge  of  lawlessness  so  often  brought  against 
Roosevelt's  acts  in  the  Presidency  may  be  tested  by 
his  conservation  measures.  His  opponents  declared 
nearly  every  one  of  them  "unconstitutional"  and  "with 
out  authority  of  law."  The  language  of  invective  was 
exhausted  upon  them.  He  had,  they  said,  trodden  under 


298  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

foot  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  states  and  the 
prerogatives  of  Congress.  The  Reclamation  Act  was 
unconstitutional;  the  permanent  reservation  and  admin 
istration  of  national  forests  within  a  state  reduced 
the  state  to  vassalage;  the  forest  regulations  were  an 
attempt  to  promulgate  laws  by  executive  decree;  the 
withdrawal  orders  revived  the  claim  of  the  Stuarts 
to  the  suspensory  power. 

He  was  a  new  Charles  I  and  Cromwell  in  one.  His 
water-power  program  robbed  the  Western  states  of 
their  property  in,  and  the  Eastern  states  of  their  juris 
diction  over,  water,  etc.  So  ran  the  criticism  of 
Senators  in  the  annual  debates  over  the  Forest  Service 
appropriation.  Ten  years  have  passed.  These  matters 
at  last  have  come  before  the  Supreme  Court  in  six  great 
cases.  It  is  well  to  recite  them. 

In  Baker  vs.  Swigart,  the  court  assumed  the  consti 
tutionality  of  the  Reclamation  Act  and  upheld  the 
authority  of  the  government  to  collect  from  users  of 
water  the  annual  operation  and  maintenance  charges 
fixed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  Light  vs. 
United  States,  the  court  upheld  the  right  of  the  nation 
permanently  to  hold  and  administer  national  forests 
or  other  reservations  within  a  state  and  declared  that 
this  left  the  state  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  all  the 
other  states.  It  further  held  that  state  laws  limiting 
the  rights  of  landed  proprietors  are  void  as  to  leased 
lands  owned  by  the  United  States.  In  United  States 
vs.  Grimand,  the  court  held  that  the  forest  regulations 
governing  grazing  were  not  a  usurpation  of  legislative 
power  but  were  valid,  and  that  violation  of  them  was 
punishable  in  the  Federal  courts  by  fine  and  imprison 
ment. 


CONSERVATION  299 

In  United  States  vs.  Midwest  Oil  Company,  the 
court  held  that  the  withdrawal  of  public  lands  from  dis 
posal  under  existing  laws,  done  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
Congress  an  opportunity  to  consider  proposals  of  new 
and  different  laws,  is  not  an  exercise  of  suspensory  power, 
and  is  valid.  In  United  States  vs.  Chandler  Dunbar 
Company,  the  court  decided  that  Congress  as  an  incident 
to  improving  the  navigation  of  a  river  may  take  the  raw 
water  power  of  the  stream,  develop  it,  and  sell  or  lease 
the  surplus  over  that  needed  to  operate  the  navigation 
works,  all  without  compensation  to  the  riparian  owner; 
that  any  right  of  the  owner  under  the  state  law  to  the 
flow  of  the  stream  for  power  or  to  the  bed  is  void  as 
against  the  Federal  right  of  navigation,  with  all  its  inci 
dents.  In  Utah  Power  and  Light  Company  vs.  United 
States,  the  court  held  that  the  water-power  regulations 
of  the  Forest  Service  are  valid,  including  the  exaction 
of  a  rental  for  water-power  sites. 

With  one  exception  all  these  decisions  were  unani 
mous.  The  Supreme  Court  has  upheld  every  single  action 
of  Roosevelt  for  conservation  that  has  been  brought 
before  it.  Thanks  to  his  courage  and  wisdom,  construc 
tive  reformers  need  not  fear  that  the  constitution  and 
the  laws  will  bind  the  hands  of  a  brave  executive  advised 
by  skilled  counsel. 

One  thing  more  should  be  said:  That  the  Roosevelt 
conservation  policies  are  today  as  sound  as  they  were 
when  they  were  first  advanced.  The  passage  of  time 
has  merely  served  to  confirm  their  wisdom,  and  the 
foresighted  statesmanship  of  the  man  who  gave  them 
to  the  nation  and  the  world. 

Roosevelt's  Presidency  made  the  conservation 
movement  possible.  He  connected  the  vision  of  a  better 


300  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

day  with  the  commonplace  of  fact.  \£Jever  again  will 
we  return  to  the  old  wasteful  conditions,  under  which 
the  nation's  resources  were  recklessly  exploited  to  satisfy 
private  greed..  This  much  we  have  gained,  even  though 
no  one  in  high  place  has  arisen  with  the  courage  and  the 
vision  necessary  to  carry  on  his  work.  Who  can  bend 
the  bow  of  Ulysses? 


CHAPTER  XX 

THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 

ROOSEVELT'S  seven  and  a  half  years  of  service  as 
President  ended  on  March  4,  1909.  In  the 
morning  of  that  day  Washington  awoke  to  a 
tremendous  snow  storm.  The  President  and  the  Presi 
dent-elect,  William  H.  Taft,  met  at  the  breakfast  table 
and  Roosevelt,  surveying  the  storm,  remarked,  "I  knew 
there  would  be  a  blizzard  clear  up  to  the  minute  I  went 
out  of  office."  After  the  inauguration  ceremonies  he 
and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  drove  to  the  Union  Station.  There 
an  enormous  crowd  was  gathered  to  see  him  off  and  as 
he  boarded  his  train  the  shout  of  "Good-bye  Teddy" 
rose  from  thousands  of  throats.  Three  weeks  later  he 
was  outward  bound  for  Africa. 

For  some  time  he  had  planned  this  trip  to  collect 
animal  and  plant  specimens  for  the  Smithsonian  Insti 
tution — the  great  National  Museum  at  Washington. 
The  party  w^hich  sailed  from  New  York  on  March  23d 
consisted  of  Colonel  Roosevelt,  his  son  Kermit,  and 
three  naturalists,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Edgar  A.  Mearns, 
Mr.  Edmund  Heller  and  Mr.  J.  Alden  Loring.  At 
Naples  they  transshipped  to  an  East  African  liner. 
On  this  vessel  they  met  Frederick  Courteney  Selous, 
a  famous  English  big-game  hunter,  who  had  helped 
largely  in  the  preparations  for  the  trip.  Selous  had 
been  a  mighty  huntsman  for  nearly  forty  years,  and 
his  tales  of  adventures  in  the  heart  of  Africa  were  a 
fit  preparation  for  the  experiences  which  Roosevelt 
and  his  friends  were  soon  to  enjoy. 

(301) 


302  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

From  Naples  their  vessel  carried  them  eastward 
on  the  Mediterranean,  through  the  Suez  Canal  to  the 
Red  Sea,  and  down  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  until  at 
last,  on  April  21st,  they  reached  the  port  of  Mombasa, 
just  below  the  equator,  in  British  East  Africa.  There 
they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  Lieutenant-Governor 
Jackson,  whose  considerable  attainments  as  a  naturalist 
gave  him  a  particular  interest  in  the  expedition.  Next 
day  they  boarded  the  Lieutenant-Governor's  special 
train  to  make  the  journey  inland  on  the  Uganda  Rail 
road.  With  them  went  also  R.  J.  Cuninghame  and 
Leslie  Tarlton,  both  hunters  of  long  experience. 

The  railroad  led  through  the  Southern  Game 
Reserve — a  country  which  abounded  in  all  manner  of 
wild  life.  It  had  been  built  not  many  years  before 
through  a  country  infested  by  man-eating  lions,  who 
had  very  seriously  interfered  with  the  work  of  construc 
tion,  and  who  were  still  plentiful  enough  to  cause  trou 
ble.  The  Colonel  and  his  party  sat  on  a  comfortable 
seat  built  above  the  cow-catcher,  and  from  this  point 
of  vantage  enjoyed  the  hundreds  of  animals  which 
they  met.  There  were  herds  of  hartebeests,  enormous 
ostriches,  zebras,  monkeys,  giraffes,  and  birds  innum 
erable.  The  animals  were  so  tame  that  the  train  dis 
turbed  them  very  little.  Not  long  before,  a  lioness 
had  actually  stayed  on  the  track  so  long  that  she  was 
run  over  and  killed.  The  night  of  the  Colonel's  trip 
giraffes  put  the  telegraph  service  out  of  commission 
by  knocking  down  some  of  the  wires  and  a  pole  as  they 
crossed  the  track.  The  whole  country  was  a  wonder- 
world  for  the  naturalist. 

After  three  or  four  hundred  miles  of  this  travel  the 
party  at  last  reached  the  station  of  Kapiti  Plains,  where 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      303 

their  caravan  was  waiting  for  them.  The  preparations 
for  the  expedition  were  prodigious.  It  was  necessary  to 
carry  enormous  quantities  of  naturalist's  supplies  includ 
ing,  among  other  things,  four  tons  of  salt  for  curing 
skins,  hundreds  of  traps,  and  many  boxes  of  ammuni 
tion.  Two  hundred  porters  were  engaged  to  carry  these 
materials,  as  well  as  the  tents,  food  and  personal  equip 
ment.  There  were  gun-bearers,  tent  boys,  horse  boys, 
and  fifteen  native  soldiers  to  keep  order  in  the  outfit. 

The  camp  looked  as  if  it  were  prepared  for  a  small 
army.  The  Colonel's  tent  was  in  the  front  with  a  large 
American  flag  over  it,  flanked  by  the  tents  of  the  other 
members  of  his  party.  Behind  were  the  tents  of  the 
native  soldiers  and  servants.  The  Colonel  ha.d  a  fly 
over  his  tent  to  protect  it  from  the  intense  heat,  a  rear 
extension  for  bathing,  and  a  canvas  floor  to  keep  out 
ticks,  jiggers  and  scorpions.  All  this  was  necessary 
in  Africa,  but  must  have  seemed  luxurious  to  a  man 
accustomed  to  camping  in  the  North  Woods  and  in 
the  Rockies. 

For  the  first  two  weeks  the  party  were  the  guests 
of  Sir  Alfred  Pease,  who  owned  a  large  farm  near  the 
Kapiti  Plains.  It  was  Sir  Alfred  who  really  introduced 
them  to  African  hunting.  Each  day  they  would  start 
out  bent  upon  securing  certain  specimens  for  the 
National  Museum.  In  all  the  hunting  there  was  no 
useless  slaughter;  nothing  was  shot  except  for  scientific 
purposes  and  for  the  food  of  the  caravan.  In  speaking 
of  this  afterward,  Colonel  Roosevelt  said,  "Kermit 
and  I  kept  about  a  dozen  trophies  for  ourselves;  other 
wise  we  shot  nothing  that  was  not  used  either  as  a  museum 
specimen  or  for  meat — usually  for  both  purposes.  We 
were  in  hunting  grounds  practically  as  good  as  any 


304  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  have  ever  existed;  but  we  did  not  kill  a  tenth, 
not  a  hundredth,  part  of  what  we  might  have  killed 
had  we  been  willing.  The  mere  size  of  the  bag  indicates 
little  as  to  a  man's  prowess  as  a  hunter,  and  almost 
nothing  as  to  the  interest  or  value  of  his  achievement." 

The  dangerous  game  animals  of  Africa  are  the  lion, 
the  buffalo,  the  elephant,  the  rhinoceros  and  the  leopard. 
Authorities  differ  as  to  the  comparative  danger  of  hunt 
ing  these  beasts.  All  of  them  are  fierce  and  easily  able 
to  kill  a  man.  The  Colonel's  first  exciting  experience 
on  the  trip  was  a  lion  hunt  with  Sir  Alfred  Pease.  At 
the  end  of  a  long  day,  in  which  three  lions  had  already 
been  killed,  the  Colonel  and  his  party  stirred  up  a  fourth 
lion  and  galloped  across  the  plain  in  pursuit  of  him. 
They  gained  on  the  lion  rapidly  and  he  suddenly  halted 
and  stood  at  bay  in  a  patch  of  long  grass.  Roosevelt 
dismounted  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the 
beast  and  was  joined  by  Simba,  his  horse  boy.  The 
lion,  lashing  his  tail  and  roaring  with  rage,  stood  facing 
the  Colonel  and  apparently  ready  to  charge.  It  does 
not  take  an  angry  lion  long  to  cover  a  hundred  and 
fifty  yards,  and  the  Colonel  made  up  his  mind  that  in 
case  of  trouble  he  would  trust  to  his  rifle  rather  than 
to  the  speed  of  his  horse.  But  before  the  lion  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  rush,  three  bullets  from  Roosevelt's 
rifle  had  put  an  end  to  his  career. 

The  four  lions  were  then  skinned,  and,  under  the 
rising  moon,  the  party  set  off  for  the  farm.  As  they 
trudged  along  carrying  the  skins  the  natives  chanted 
antiphonal  songs  of  triumph,  expressing  the  delight 
which  the  death  of  a  lion  always  caused  them.  It  was 
a  weird  and  beautiful  scene  which  Roosevelt  remem 
bered  with  delight. 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA        305 

At  last  the  time  came  for  them  to  bid  farewell  to 
their  hospitable  host  and  hostess  and  to  start  out  across 
the  Athi  Plains.  The  march  now  began  in  earnest. 
Each  day  camp  was  broken  as  early  as  possible  and  the 
porters  shouldered  their  loads.  The  American  flag 
which  flew  over  the  Colonel's  tent  was  always  carried 
near  the  head  of  the  procession,  and  behind  it  followed 
the  long  line  of  burden-bearers.  As  they  marched  they 
often  chanted  monotonously,  or  repeated  in  unison 
over  and  over  again  a  word  or  phrase  which  frequently 
was  meaningless,  but  whose  rhythm  pleased  them. 
On  a  long  march  there  was  always  a  halt  for  lunch. 
At  the  end  of  the  day's  journey  the  tents  were  quickly 
pitched,  with  broad  streets  between  the  rows,  and  as 
night  fell  a  camp-fire  was  kindled,  about  which  the 
Colonel  and  his  friends  sat  and  discussed  their  recent 
adventures.  When  a  good  hunting  country  was  reached 
a  permanent  camp  was  set  up,  from  which  excursions 
were  made  during  the  day. 

After  they  left  Sir  Alfred's  ranch  came  the  first 
experience  with  buffalo.  The  African  buffalo  is  an 
enormous,  powerful  creature,  something  like  our  Ameri 
can  bison,  but  with  very  much  larger  horns.  One  day 
the  hunting  party  were  creeping  up  the  bed  of  a  dry 
water-course,  on  the  lookout  for  game,  when  Cuning- 
hame  detected  half  a  dozen  buffalo  lying  in  the  grass. 
The  hunters  crawled  cautiously  to  within  two  hundred 
yards  of  the  animals  and  from  that  distance  fired.  At 
the  noise  of  the  shots  there  sprang  from  the  grass,  to 
their  consternation,  a  herd  of  seventy  or  eighty.  Had 
the  herd  charged,  probably  no  one  would  have  been  left 
to  tell  the  tale.  Fortunately,  however,  the  buffalo 
turned  at  right  angles  and  made  off  at  a  run.  But  in  a 
20 


306  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

few  seconds  they  stopped  and,  forming  a  quarter-circle, 
faced  the  hunters  with  outstretched  heads.  There  was 
nothing  to  do  but  to  stand  steady  and  to  refrain  from 
shooting.  To  run  or  to  fire  would  have  been  to  court 
death.  The  herd  hesitated  a  minute  and  then  resumed 
its  flight.  The  first  shots  had  hit  three  of  the  animals, 
and  these  were  secured  as  specimens. 

After  five  weeks  the  party  reached  the  busy  town  of 
Nairobi,  some  distance  up  the  Uganda  Railroad  from 
the  place  where  their  trip  had  begun.  From  Nairobi 
thousands  of  specimens  of  beasts,  birds,  and  plants 
were  prepared  and  shipped  to  the  Smithsonian. 

The  next  trip  was  south  from  the  railroad,  into  the 
almost  waterless  Sotik  district.  This  country  abounded 
with  birds  of  all  kinds,  and  with  game  as  well.  The 
hunters  secured  specimens  of  the  rhinoceros,  topi,  giraffe, 
hyena  and  of  many  other  animals.  In  this  country 
there  were  plenty  of  lions,  and  one  of  these  gave  the 
Colonel  a  thrilling  adventure. 

On  a  tremendously  hot  day,  as  the  hunters  were  cross 
ing  the  plain,  one  of  the  natives,  looking  over  a  little 
rise,  descried  a  big  lion  with  a  yellow-and-black  mane 
walking  in  the  open  toward  the  body  of  a  zebra  which 
he  had  killed  the  night  before.  Immediately  the  party 
started  after  him  on  horseback  and  pursued  him  for 
some  distance.  The  lion  lay  down  behind  a  bush,  and 
the  Colonel,  jumping  from  his  horse,  made  a  poor  shot 
which  only  wounded  the  beast  slightly.  On  he  went 
and  lay  down  again  behind  a  low  grassy  ant-hill.  At  a 
distance  of  two  hundred  yards  Roosevelt  and  Tarlton 
dismounted  and  prepared  to  fire  again.  Tarlton  shot 
first  but  his  rifle  was  badly  sighted  and  he  missed  entirely. 
Then  the  Colonel  fired,  but  he  had  misjudged  the 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      307 

distance  and  again  he  inflicted  only  a  slight  flesh  wound. 
The  lion  was  grunting  savagely  and  lashing  his  tail, 
and  as  the  bullet  struck  him  he  started  for  the  two  men 
with  the  speed  of  a  greyhound.  Tarlton  fired  and  missed 
again.  The  Colonel,  steadying  his  rifle  on  his  knee,  drew 
a  bead  on  the  center  of  the  great  beast's  chest,  and  as 
the  lion  galloped  at  him,  grunting  with  rage,  pressed  the 
trigger  and  the  bullet  sped  to  its  mark.  The  lion  col 
lapsed  in  a  heap  but  recovered  himself  and  attempted 
to  charge  again,  but  the  shot  had  been  fatal  and  in  a  few 
seconds  he  was  dead. 

It  was  in  this  country,  too,  that  they  hunted  the 
hippopotamus.  The  hippo  can  make  fair  speed  on  land 
or  in  deep  water,  but  his  real  home  is  shallow  water 
where  he  can  gallop  very  fast.  As  the  party  were  steam 
ing  along  the  edge  of  Lake  Naivasha,  they  saw  a  big 
hippo  walking  on  the  shore  of  a  little  bay.  The  Colonel, 
with  Cuninghame  and  Kermit,  got  into  a  rowboat 
and  when  they  were  about  a  hundred  yards  away  from 
the  hippo,  the  Colonel  fired  into  its  shoulder.  Imme 
diately  the  huge  beast  spun  around,  plunged  into  the  water 
and  with  its  enormous  jaws  wide  open,  came  straight 
through  the  shallow  water  at  the  boat.  As  it  came  on 
the  Colonel  fired  again  and  again,  and  Kermit  took 
successive  photographs,  without  even  looking  up  from 
the  finder  of  his  camera.  Before  the  hippo  reached  the 
boat,  one  of  the  Colonel's  shots  had  killed  him  and  he 
fell  into  the  shallow  water,  from  which  it  was  a  tremen 
dous  job  to  pull  him  out. 

On  July  24th  they  reached  Nairobi  again  and  shipped 
home  another  lot  of  specimens.  This  done,  they  started 
northward  on  a  trip  into  the  foothills  of  Mt.  Kenia,  a 
tremendous  snow-clad  peak  surrounded  by  glaciers, 


308  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

which  towers  more  than  18,000  feet  above  sea-level. 
In  this  country  they  hunted  elephants  for  the  first  time. 
The  African  elephant  is  a  highly  intelligent  animal 
but  he  has  never  been  tamed  as  has  his  Indian  cousin. 
Indeed,  an  Indian  elephant  which  had  been  trained  to 
man's  use  was  the  astonishment  of  the  natives  at 
Entebbe,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza.  The 
African  elephant  has  very  keen  hearing  and  scent,  and 
is  for  that  reason  extremely  difficult  to  hunt.  Roosevelt 
and  his  party,  however,  were  indefatigable  and  were 
blessed  with  the  good  luck  which  accompanies  perse 
verance. 

After  some  difficulty,  they  found  and  followed  the 
tracks  of  a  small  herd  and  finally  could  hear  the 
elephants  moving  slowly  through  the  jungle.  The 
foliage  was  so  dense  that  for  half  an  hour  they  crept 
along  within  a  few  rods  of  the  herd,  hearing  them  dis 
tinctly  but  unable  to  see  them.  At  last  an  opening  in 
the  trail  revealed  a  big  bull  resting  his  heavy  tusks  on 
the  branches  of  a  young  tree.  Roosevelt  fired,  striking 
the  animal's  head,  but  missing  the  brain.  The  mighty 
beast  fell,  but  in  the  same  instant  the  bushes  parted 
on  one  side  and  through  them  rushed  another  bull 
elephant,  charging  so  close  that  he  could  have  touched 
the  Colonel  with  his  trunk.  Cuninghame  hastily  fired  but 
the  elephant,  with  a  shrill  trumpet,  disappeared  into 
the  jungle.  The  naturalists  then  turned  to  the  work 
of  skinning  the  dead  elephant — a  formidable  task, 
which  took  many  days  to  accomplish. 

On  October  first  the  party  were  back  again  at  Nai 
robi  to  ship  more  specimens,  and  five  days  later  they 
started  from  the  railroad  station  of  Londiani,  not  far 
from  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  for  another  northward 


Photo  by  Paul  Thompson,  N.  Y. 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BERLIN 

An  incident  of  the  trip  through  Europe  in  1910.  He  is  seen  leaving  the  Uni 
versity  with  Dr.  Hill,  the  American  Ambassador,  after  delivering  an  address  and 
receiving  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 


Photo  by  Paul  Thompson,  N.  Y. 

AT  THE  TOMB  OF  NAPOLEON 

During  the  triumphal  progress  through  Europe  which  followed  his  African 
hunting  trip,  Colonel  Roosevelt  delivered  a  number  of  notable  addresses.  It  was 
after  the  Sorbonne  address  that  he  visited  the  Hotel  des  Invalides,  where  he  was 
received  by  the  Military  Governor  of  Paris,  General  Dalstein. 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      309 

trip  in  the  region  of  Mt.  Elgon.  This  country  was  known 
as  the  Uasin  Gishu  Plateau,  and  contained  several 
kinds  of  antelope  and  a  five-horned  giraffe,  of  which 
specimens  were  wanted  for  the  Museum.  Here  they 
saw  for  the  first  time  the  honey-birds,  whom  John  Bur 
roughs  had  specially  charged  Roosevelt  to  observe. 
A  honey -bird  often  approached  the  party,  chattering 
loudly,  and  when  followed  would  lead  the  way  to  a 
tree  which  was  always  found  to  contain  honey. 
Sometimes  the  honeycomb  had  grubs  in  it,  which 
were  apparently  the  reward  that  the  bird  wanted  for 
its  services. 

Near  Sergoi  Lake  in  this  country,  the  Colonel  and 
his  party  joined  a  unique  kind  of  lion  hunt.  With  a 
number  of  resident  Englishmen  and  a  group  of  sixty 
or  seventy  native  warriors,  they  started  out  one  morning 
to  search  for  the  lion.  Beating  through  a  wide,  shallow 
valley  about  noon,  they  at  last  discovered  one  who 
galloped  off  through  the  high  grass,  pursued  by  the 
huntsmen.  After  a  mile's  chase  he  stood  at  bay  under 
a  low  thorn  tree  and  was  quickly  surrounded  by  the 
natives,  each  armed  writh  a  spear  and  a  shield.  The 
lion  with  bristling  mane  and  lashing  tail,  faced  first  one 
way  and  then  the  other,  roaring  with  fury.  Suddenly 
he  charged  at  a  point  in  the  circle.  The  leading  war 
rior  sprang  to  the  front  and  hurled  his  spear.  As  it 
entered  the  lion's  body  the  great  beast  flung  himself 
on  the  man  nearest  him  and  disregarding  his  adversary's 
spear,  which  had  pierced  him  from  one  side  to  the  other, 
struck  the  man's  shield  down  and  leaped  upon  his  vic 
tim.  In  an  instant  a  dozen  spears  were  through  his 
body  and  he  fell  in  the  agony  of  death,  gripping  a  spear 
head  in  his  jaws  with  such  force  as  to  bend  it  double. 


310  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  wounded  man  soon  forgot  his  pain  when  the  Colonel 
promised  him  a  heifer;  while  the  other  warriors, 
with  their  shields  above  their  heads,  performed  a  dance 
of  victory  around  the  lion's  dead  body. 

When  they  had  completed  their  trip  in  the  TJasin 
Gishu  Plateau,  the  party  returned  to  Nairobi,  and  from 
there,  after  a  few  necessary  preparations,  started,  on 
December  18th,  for  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza.  Among 
these  preparations  were  some  additions  to  the  Colonel's 
famous  Pigskin  Library — a  considerable  collection  of 
books  carried  in  a  light  aluminum  and  oil-cloth  case, 
and  ranging  all  the  way  from  Euripides  to  Alice  in 
Wonderland. 

The  railroad  trip  to  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza  was  brief, 
and  twenty -four  hours  in  a  lake  steamer  carried  them 
across  to  Entebbe,  the  seat  of  the  English  Governor 
of  Uganda.  On  the  voyage  they  passed  many  beautiful 
deserted  islands  which  had  once  been  thickly  populated 
before  the  country  had  been  ravaged  by  the  fatal  sleep 
ing  sickness.  From  Entebbe  they  went  on  to  Campalla, 
where  the  Colonel  met  the  little  native  King  of  Uganda, 
and  paid  interesting  visits  to  the  Church  of  England 
and  Roman  Catholic  missions.  In  the  latter  Mother 
Paul,  an  old  friend  of  the  Colonel,  taught  the  native 
children,  and  they  delighted  him  by  an  extraordinary 
rendering  of  the  Star  Spangled  Banner. 

From  Victoria  Nyanza,  the  road  led  a  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  to  Lake  Albert  Nyanza.  On  the  way  the 
hunters  were  frequently  greeted  by  tribal  chiefs  bringing 
presents  of  fruit,  sometimes  accompanied  by  sheep 
or  a  bullock.  There  were  elephants  in  this  country 
and  the  Colonel  secured  a  splendid  specimen  before 
they  had  gone  far  on  the  road. 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      311 

From  Albert  Nyanza  a  boat  carried  them  past  the 
mouth  of  the  Victorian  Nile,  which  was  alive  with  huge 
crocodiles,  and  into  the  White  Nile,  down  which  they 
rapidly  steamed.  Forty-eight  hours  later  they  disem 
barked  in  a  burning  hot  country  known  as  the  "Lado," 
in  which  mosquitoes  were  unpleasantly  plentiful.  Here 
they  secured  specimens  of  the  square-nosed  rhinoceros, 
whose  head  is  quite  different  from  that  of  the  black 
rhinoceros  which  they  had  already  seen.  Kermit  took 
many  photographs  in  this  region  as,  indeed,  he  did 
throughout  the  whole  trip,  spending  much  time  and 
pains  to  procure  pictures  of  live  animals  in  their  natu 
ral  state. 

From  the  Lado  they  started  on  the  march  for  Gondo- 
koro,  where  the  long  tramp  was  to  end.  There  they 
arrived  on  February  26,  1910,  and  were  met  by  enthu 
siastic  natives  who  carried  a  large  American  flag  and 
treated  them  to  a  rendering  of  "America"  by  a  native 
band.  Here  they  were  also  greeted  by  M.  Ranquet, 
the  Belgian  Commandant  of  the  Lado  district.  Sir 
Reginald  Wingate,  Sirdar  of  the  Soudan,  had  sent  a 
boat  to  bring  the  party  down  the  Nile.  As  they  went 
along  the  1300-mile  stretch  to  Khartoum,  they  landed 
at  intervals  to  complete  their  collections  of  specimens. 
Finally,  they  reached  Khartoum  on  March  14th  and 
were  met  by  the  Sirdar  and  other  British  officials  with  a 
hearty  welcome.  What  pleased  the  Colonel  and  Kermit 
even  more,  was  that  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  Ethel  came 
up  from  Cairo  by  train  and  joined  them  there. 

The  eleven-months'  trip  had  been  a  great  success 
from  the  scientific  point  of  view.  Four  thousand  speci 
mens  of  birds  and  nearly  five  thousand  of  mammals  had 
been  secured  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  in 


312  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

addition,  about  twenty-five  hundred  fish,  reptiles  and 
batrachians.  Many  invertebrates*  had  also  been  col 
lected,  several  thousand  plants  and  a  quantity  of 
anthropological  material.  These  achievements  were  due 
not  only  to  the  skill  and  perseverance  of  the  hunters, 
but  also  in  no  small  degree  to  the  constant  and  helpful 
kindness  of  the  British  and  Belgian  officials  and  settlers 
through  whose  country  they  had  passed. 

From  Khartoum,  the  Roosevelts  visited  Omdurman 
and  other  battlefields  on  which  the  Mahdi's  power 
was  broken  years  ago,  and  then  went  by  rail  to  Cairo. 
At  Cairo  University,  on  March  28th,  Roosevelt  delivered 
a  lecture  to  the  Egyptian  students,  in  which  he  deplored 
the  recent  assassination  of  Premier  Boutros,  and  forcibly 
reminded  his  hearers  that  a  community  cajmot  exercise 
the  right  of  self-government  until  it  has  shown  the 
power  of  self-restraint. 

They  sailed  from  Cairo  to  Italy  and  began  there  a 
ten-weeks'  trip  through  Europe.  Throughout  his  journey 
Roosevelt  received  the  most  remarkable  evidences  of 
his  world-wide  popularity — real  tributes  to  his  personal 
qualities,  for  he  did  not  come  as  the  official  representa 
tive  of  the  United  States  but  simply  as  a  private  citizen. 
In  Rome  he  was  entertained  by  the  King  and  Queen 
of  Italy.  He  had  asked  Ambassador  Leishman  to  get 
for  him  an  audience  with  the  Pope,  but  the  interview 
had  proved  impossible  to  arrange  because  the  Vatican 
had  insisted  upon  attaching  a  condition  that  the  Colo 
nel  should  refrain  from  visiting  the  American  Methodist 
Mission  in  Rome.  Roosevelt  would  have  enjoyed  a 
talk  with  the  Holy  Father,  but  he  was  not  willing  to 
restrict  his  freedom  of  speech  and  action  as  he  was  asked 
to  do. 


Underwood  it  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

THE  ROUGH  RIDERS  TURN  OUT  IN  WELCOME 

When  the  ex-President  returned  from  Africa  he  received  an  unprecedented 
welcome  at  New  York.  In  the  great  parade  his  old  regiment,  the  "  Rough  Riders," 
were  conspicuous  in  their  Spanish  War  uniforms. 


Photo  by  Paul  Thompson,  N.  Y. 

GREETING  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS 

"  I  certainly  love  all  my  boys,"  was  Colonel  Roosevelt's  greeting  to  the  men  of 
his  old  regiment  who  had  met  him  at  the  Battery  to  escort  him  on  his  triumphal 
progress  through  his  native  city  on  his  return  from  Africa. 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      313 

From  Rome  he  went  to  Vienna,  where  he  was  the 
guest  of  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  and  to  Budapest, 
where  Archduke  Joseph  entertained  him,  and  where 
he  met  Francis  Kossuth,  son  of  the  famous  Hungarian 
patriot  who  visited  America  just  before  the  Civil  War. 

In  Paris,  on  April  23d,  he  delivered  an  address  on 
Citizenship  in  a  Republic,  at  the  Sorbonne  before  a 
large  and  representative  body  of  French  scholars  and 
other  notables.  From  France  he  went  through  Belgium, 
Holland  and  Denmark  to  Norway.  At  Christiania  he 
spoke  on  the  subject  of  International  Peace  before  the 
Nobel  Prize  Committee,  from  whom  he  had  received 
the  Peace  Prize  for  his  promotion  of  the  Russo-Japanese 
Treaty.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  the  King  and 
Queen  stood  and  joined  with  the  rest  of  the  audience 
in  a  Norwegian  "three  times  three  for  Theodore  Roose 
velt."  He  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 
from  the  University  of  Norway,  an  honor  which  that 
institution  had  hitherto  bestowed  only  upon  its  own 
students.  A  great  dinner  was  given  in  his  honor  by 
King  Haakon.  But  of  all  his  Norwegian  experiences  I 
imagine  that  he  enjoyed  most  his  talk  with  Nansen,  the 
Arctic  explorer,  with  whom  he  was  able  to  exchange 
tales  of  adventure  and  daring. 

At  Potsdam  he  was  the  guest  of  the  Kaiser  and  on 
May  llth  they  reviewed  together  twelve  thousand 
German  troops.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  review,  the 
Kaiser  turned  to  him  and  said:  "My  friend  Roosevelt, 
I  am  glad  to  welcome  you,  the  most  distinguished  Amer 
ican  citizen.  You  are  the  first  civilian  who  has  ever 
reviewed  German  troops."  If  either  of  them  remembered 
the  Venezuela  incident  of  eight  years  before,  we  may 
be  sure  that  it  was  not  mentioned  between  them. 


314  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Next  day  he  delivered  a  lecture%on  The  World  Move 
ment  before  the  University  of  Berlin.  The  lecture  was 
attended  by  the  royal  family  as  well  as  by  the  diplomatic 
representatives  and  the  faculty  and  students  of  the 
institution,  and  after  it  was  over  he  received  from  the 
University  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 

The  Colonel  reached  London  on  May  16th  as  the 
special  representative  of  the  United  States,  to  attend 
the  funeral  of  King  Edward.  The  King  was  buried 
on  the  20th  with  great  pomp  and  circumstance,  and  the 
ceremony  was  attended  by  many  of  the  crowned  heads 
of  Europe  and  by  the  representatives  of  other  nations. 

Roosevelt  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor  and  was  never 
more  entertaining  than  when  he  could  be  induced  to 
recount  some  of  his  experiences  on  this  occasion.  The 
numerous  questions  of  etiquette  which  arose  between 
the  various  persons  brought  together  afforded  many 
amusing  situations.  At  one  of  these  recitals  some  mem 
bers  of  the  Outlook  staff  and  a  few  others,  including 
Miss  Jane  Addams  of  Chicago,  were  assembled  in  a 
very  small  room.  As  the  chairs  were  few,  most  of  the 
company,  including  Miss  Addams,  were  perched  on 
various  boxes  which  were  arranged  around  the  wall, 
and  Miss  Addams,  at  an  inimitable  recital  of  a  partic 
ularly  absurd  incident,  laughed  so  hard  that  she  actually 
tumbled  off  the  box  on  which  she  was  seated. 

It  is  manifest  that  many  of  these  stories  cannot 
now  be  told.  There  is,  however,  no  reason  why  two  in 
connection  with  the  German  Emperor  cannot  be 
repeated.  At  a  luncheon — I  believe  at  Windsor  Castle — 
given  to  the  crowned  heads  and  to  the  delegates  from 
the  principal  nations,  the  Czar  of  Russia  was  talking  to 
Roosevelt.  The  Emperor  walked  over  to  them  and 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      315 

without  apology  brusquely  interrupted  the  conversation 
by  saying:  "My  friend  Roosevelt,  I  wish  you  to  meet 
the  King  of  Spain.  He!"  (turning  his  back  directly 
upon  the  Czar,  but  looking  at  him  over  his  shoulder  with 
a  most  contemptuous  expression)  "is  a  king  worth 
knowing." 

Speaking  of  the  Kaiser,  another  story  which  I  have 
often  heard  repeated,  but  not  by  Roosevelt,  is  to  the 
effect  that  the  Kaiser  said  to  him  that  he  was  anxious 
to  have  some  conversation  with  him,  and  ascertaining 
from  some  one  in  attendance  what  his  engagements 
were  the  next  day,  he  continued,  "I  can  see  you  at 
2:30  and  can  give  you  three-quarters  of  an  hour." 
As  quick  as  a  flash  Roosevelt  replied,  "I  shall  be  very 
glad  to  call  on  you  tomorrow  at  2:30  but  I  will  not 
be  able  to  stay  longer  than  a  half  hour."  As  a  matter 
of  fact  he  had  an  engagement  at  2:30  to  call  on  the 
authoress,  Mrs  Humphrey  Ward. 

This  is  perhaps  the  place  to  relate  one  other  story 
in  which  the  Kaiser  figures.  On  his  return  home  the 
Kaiser  sent  Roosevelt  pictures  taken  during  his  visit 
to  Berlin,  showing  the  two  men  reviewing  the  German 
troops.  From  time  to  time  there  was  more  or  less  corre 
spondence  between  them.  On  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
in  Europe,  when  the  action  of  Germany  in  Belgium 
was  being  properly  subjected  to  strong  condemnation 
in  this  country,  a  prominent  German-American  called 
at  Oyster  Bay.  He  delicately  pointed  out  to  Roosevelt 
that  the  Kaiser,  during  his  stay  in  Germany,  had  shown 
him  honors  which  had  never  before  been  accorded  to  a 
private  citizen,  and  that  he  had  since  corresponded 
with  him  and  had  in  other  ways  given  evidence  of  his 
distinguished  consideration.  Now  was  Roosevelt's 


316  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

opportunity  to  show  that  he  appreciated  these  attentions 
by  making  some  statement  to  counteract  the  criticisms 
which  were  being  directed  against  the  Kaiser  and  the 
German  nation.  Roosevelt  often  expressed  the  satis 
faction  with  which  he  replied — and  we  can  see  his  eyes 
flash:  "What  you  say  in  regard  to  the  courtesies  which 
have  been  shown  me  by  the  German  Emperor  is  entirely 
true.  It  is  also  true  that  I  have  corresponded  with  him 
since  my  return  to  this  country.  Indeed,  Sir,  my  rela 
tions  with  the  Kaiser  have  been  exactly  the  same  as 
with  the  King  of  the  Belgians.  Good-afternoon." 

Questions  of  precedence  arose  at  King  Edward's 
funeral  and  the  heart-burnings  were  many.  There  was 
one  representative  who  seemed  to  feel  very  deeply  the 
fact  that  there  were  slight  but  perceptible  differences 
between  the  treatment  accorded  to  him  and  that  accorded 
to  certain  other  delegates.  He  came  to  Roosevelt  one 
morning  in  great  excitement  at  the  indignity  which 
he  had  suffered  through  the  fact  that  the  attendants 
who  had  been  assigned  to  him  were  not  dressed  in  new 
liveries  every  day.  He  had  ascertained  that  those 
appointed  to  attend  Mr.  Roosevelt  were  also  lacking 
in  new  raiment.  As  the  delegate  did  not  speak  English 
but  did  understand  French,  Roosevelt  made  the  mistake 
of  trying  to  joke  in  French.  While  fluent  in  that  lan 
guage,  his  accent,  as  he  himself  said,  was  that  of  the 
French  picked  up  at  Stratford-atte-Bowe.  To  smooth 
the  injured  feelings  of  his  friend,  he  assured  him  that 
it  did  not  make  any  difference  to  him  whether  his  attend 
ants  retained  their  present  costumes  or  were  dressed 
in  yellow  trousers  and  green  coats.  "That  is  your  offi 
cial  livery,"  exclaimed  the  excitable  foreigner.  "I  will 
go  at  once  and  demand  that  all  your  attendants  be 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA      317 

dressed  as  you  desire."  And  it  was  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  Roosevelt  restrained  him  from  putting 
his  polite  intentions  into  effect. 

On  June  1st  the  Colonel  was  given  the  freedom  of 
the  City  of  London  at  the  Guildhall,  and  proceeded 
immediately  to  exercise  that  freedom  by  a  character 
istically  frank  speech.  He  heartily  praised  British  rule 
in  East  Africa,  Uganda  and  the  Soudan,  where  his 
recent  trip  had  given  him  the  opportunity  of  extensive 
observation.  He  pointed,  as  a  contrast,  to  the  prevalence 
of  crime  and  disorder  in  Egypt  and  expressed  his  regret 
that  the  British  did  not  extend  to  that  country  the 
excellent  system  employed  in  their  other  possessions. 
This  speech  created  a  considerable  stir  both  in  this 
country  and  in  Great  Britain.  Roosevelt  was  accused 
of  a  failure  to  regard  the  feelings  of  his  hosts.  But  the 
excitement  was  really  confined  largely  to  his  enemies 
in  America.  In  Great  Britain  his  words  were  generally 
accepted  as  the  criticism  of  a  sincere  friend  whom 
everybody  expected  to  speak  frankly.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  speech  had  been  submitted  to  Earl  Grey  before 
it  was  delivered. 

A  few  days  later  he  delivered  a  carefully  prepared 
and  highly  interesting  lecture  at  Oxford  University 
on  Biological  Analogies  in  History.  Then  came  the  time 
to  turn  his  face  toward  the  west  and  home.  The  family 
embarked  on  the  Hamburg-American  steamer  Kaiserin- 
Auguste-Victoria  amid  the  farewells  of  their  British 
friends,  and  after  an  uneventful  voyage  finally  reached 
New  York  on  June  18th. 

There  a  tremendous  and  unprecedented  welcome 
awaited  the  Colonel,  a  welcome  such  as  had  never  before 
in  our  history  been  accorded  to  a  private  citizen.  As 


318  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  vessel  passed  through  the  Narrows  she  was  greeted 
with  the  presidential  salute  of  tw'enty-one  guns  from 
Fort  Wadsworth,  and  received  the  same  greeting  from 
the  battleship  South  Carolina.  As  he  came  to  anchor 
off  Quarantine,  Roosevelt  was  met  by  a  reception  com 
mittee  composed  of  three  hundred  citizens  of  New 
York,  and  by  a  special  greeting  conveyed  to  him  from 
President  Taft  by  two  members  of  the  Cabinet.  The 
party  boarded  the  revenue-cutter  Androscoggin,  and 
in  a  long  line,  with  warships,  tugs  and  excursion  boats 
innumerable,  steamed  up  the  bay  to  the  Battery. 

There  a  prodigious  crowd  had  assembled,  and  every 
available  inch  of  space  in  the  specially-constructed 
grandstand  and  on  the  street,  and  at  the  windows,  and  on 
the  roofs  of  the  houses  was  occupied.  The  Colonel  landed 
and  walked  directly  to  a  platform  which  had  been 
erected  for  the  purpose.  Mayor  Gaynor  welcomed  him  in 
a  brief  and  happy  address,  to  which  the  Colonel  answered : 
"I  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  myself;  and  now  I  am  more 
glad  than  I  can  say  to  get  home,  to  be  back  in  my  own 
country,  back  among  people  I  love.  And  I  am  ready 
and  eager  to  do  my  part  so  far  as  I  am  able,  in  helping 
solve  problems  which  must  be  solved,  if  we,  of  this,  the 
greatest  democratic  republic  upon  which  the  sun  has 
ever  shone,  are  to  see  its  destinies  rise  to  the  high  level 
of  our  hopes  and  its  opportunities." 

From  the  Battery  he  rode  uptown,  along  Broadway 
and  Fifth  Avenue,  with  an  escort  of  his  own  Rough 
Riders  and  of  two  thousand  Spanish  War  Veterans. 
An  enormous  crowd  lined  the  sidewalks  and  welcomed 
him  home  with  joy.  It  was  an  inspiring  home-coming 
and  presaged  the  success  of  his  leadership  in  the  great 
struggle  which  was  to  come. 


CHAPTER  XXI  ; 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  PROGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT 

K)OSEVELT  was  a  Republican  because  he 
believed  in  a  liberal  interpretation  and  vig 
orous  exercise  of  the ,  powers  of  the  Federal 
Government.  Before  and  during  the  Civil  War  the 
Republican  party  was  at  once  a  federal  and  a  radical 
party.  Lincoln  embodied  both  these  elements.  He 
was  by  intellectual  conviction  a  Federalist,  and  his 
moral  instinct  was  to  right  wrong  by  positive  action. 
The  Republicans,  as  a  national  party,  included  the 
great  majority  of  the  business  men  of  the  country, 
while  its  opposition  to  slavery  and  the  toryism  which 
was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  that  institution  attracted 
to  it  at  the  outset  and  held  throughout  the  Civil  War 
the  majority  of  the  reformers,  practical  and  sentimental. 
From  the  end  of  the  war  and  the  death  of  Lincoln  the 
business  elements  of  the  party  secured  and  thereafter 
maintained  complete  control.  This  was  natural.  Mate 
rial  prosperity  was  the  prime  need  of  the  nation.  The 
idea  of  the  people  as  a  whole  uniting  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  government  to  carry  on  a  con 
structive  policy  to  insure  national  prosperity  by  pro 
moting  better  industrial  conditions  and  a  more  equitable 
distribution  of  wealth,  was  foreign  to  current  political 
and  economic  thought.  Progress  through  individual 
initiative  wTas  the  only  method  of  progress  thought  of. 
The  terms  "successful  business  man"  and  "good 
citizen"  were  regarded  as  synonymous.  The  idea  that 

(319) 


320  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  government  best  advanced  the  interests  of  all  by 
enabling  the  business  man  to  make  as  much  money 
as  possible  was  universally  accepted  as  a  political  axiom, 
and  therefore  the  only  constructive  measure  ever  con 
sidered  to  promote  the  public  welfare  was  a  protective 
tariff. 

Thus,  in  1880,  when  Roosevelt  left  college,  the 
Republican  party,  while  still  a  national  or  federal  party, 
had  become  the  conservative  party  of  the  nation.  Had 
not  the  Democratic  party  clung  to  its  States'  Rights 
ideals,  the  young  college  graduate,  like  so  many  of 
his  associates,  would  have  become  a  Democrat,  if  not 
at  once,  then  certainly  in  1884  on  the  nomination  of 
Elaine.  But  Roosevelt  was  then,  as  throughout  his  life, 
a  Federalist.  To  him  a  party  wilich  clung  to  what  he 
regarded  as  the  fetish  of  States'  Rights  was  not  an 
instrument  which  could  be  trusted  to  promote  the 
progress  of  the  nation.  He  therefore  became  a  Repub 
lican  because  he  believed  that  that  party  was  alone 
competent  to  meet  effectively  the  needs  of  the  country. 

The  attitude  of  the  Democratic  party  under  the 
leadership  of  Bryan  in  1896  towards  the  question  of 
free  silver  served  to  strengthen  him  in  this  conviction. 
Though  by  temperament  the  very  antithesis  of  a  stand 
patter,  and  though  his  instinct  was  to  seek  c-ut  evils 
in  the  existing  order  and  meet  them  by  positive  action, 
yet  he  was  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  that  type 
of  social  reformer  who  is  attracted  to  any  project  the 
immediate  effect  of  which  is  to  benefit  the  man  who 
has  not  at  the  expense  of  the  man  who  has.  To  him 
the  maintenance  of  what  he  regarded  as  an  honest 
currency  was  a  moral  question  and  as  a  reformer  he  was 
as  much  opposed  to  free  silver  in  1896,  as  he  was 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT         321 

opposed  as  a  Federalist  in  1900  to  the  Democratic 
attitude  on  the  Philippines  and  other  questions  arising 
out  of  the  Spanish  War. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  tragedy  at  Buffalo  placed  in 
the  great  office  of  President  a  man  of  unbounded  energy, 
ability  and  courage  who,  as  a  strong  Federalist,  was 
in  entire  agreement  with  the  leaders  of  his  party  in  and 
out  of  Congress  on  many  subjects,  but  who  differed 
radically  from  them  on  the  many  questions  arising 
out  of  our  phenomenal  industrial  development.  They 
were  conservative.  He  was  progressive.  They  looked 
at  any  measure  tending  to  curtail  the  complete  freedom 
of  men  who  were  carrying  on  large  business  enterprises 
as  dangerous  and  radical.  His  instinct  led  him  to  regard 
the  Federal  Government  as  the  instrument  through 
which  the  evils  of  the  new  industrial  combinations 
alone  could  be  controlled.  They,  shrinking  from  this 
consequence  of  that  federalism  which  had  made  their 
fathers  Republicans,  began  to  express  their  fear  of 
"unconstitutional  extension  of  Federal  power."  He, 
regarding  himself  as  the  steward  of  the  whole  people, 
desired  to  preserve  for  the  benefit  of  all,  the  natural 
resources  of  the  nation.  They,  regarding  the  promotion 
of  private  business  as  the  sole  end  of  government,  were 
willing  that  these  resources  should  be  absorbed  by 
private  interests. 

Thus,  on  many  subjects,  especially  the  larger  ques 
tions  of  foreign  and  colonial  policy,  Roosevelt  found 
himself  in  almost  complete  accord  with  the  conservative 
Republican  leaders  in  Congress,  men  like  Aldrich  and 
Hale  in  the  Senate,  and  Cannon  and  Hawley  in  the 
House.  On  the  other  hand,  he  found  himself  in  direct 
variance  with  them  on  almost  all  questions  of  domestic 
21 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

policy.  Each  side,  probably  honestly,  tried  to  get  on 
with  the  other.  Certainly  there*  was  an  honest  trial 
on  Roosevelt's  part.  But  the  friction,  comparatively 
slight  at  first,  constantly  increased  throughout  his 
Presidency,  until  towards  the  close  of  his  second  term 
the  struggle  between  the  Executive  and  the  leaders 
of  his  party  in  Congress  was  exceedingly  bitter,  and  was 
the  absorbing  subject  of  political  discussion. 

Roosevelt's  enemies  accused  him  of  being  an  extreme 
radical,  of  being  full  of  visionary  ideas,  even  of  being 
unbalanced;  while  his  friends  charged  that  his  opponents 
were  the  venal  representatives  of  special  monopolistic 
interests  and  conscienceless  exploiters  of  the  public 
lands  and  other  natural  resources.  His  own  estimate 
of  his  opponents  was  both  sane  and  just.  While  he 
knew  that  many  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  him  in 
and  out  of  Congress  were  in  fact  the  tools  of  men  who 
were  willing  to  corrupt  public  servants  for  their  own 
selfish  gain,  he  also  knew  that  many,  perhaps  the 
majority,  were  convinced — strange  as  it  may  now 
appear — that  the  welfare  of  the  nation  could  be  best 
promoted  by  leaving  things  alone,  that  such  evils  as 
impure  food  and  the  extortions  of  monopolies  could  not 
be  cured  by  regulation,  and  that  the  remaining  natural 
resources  of  the  nation  should  be  handed  over  as  rapidly 
as  possible  without  reservation  to  private  interests. 

The  details  of  this  struggle  between  the  Executive 
on  the  one  hand  and  those  in  control  of  his  party  in 
Congress  on  the  other  have  already  been  set  forth  in 
the  account  I  have  given  of  Roosevelt's  course  towards 
the  control  of  trusts,  the  regulation  of  railroads  and 
the  fight  for  the  preservation  of  natural  resources.  The 
effect  of  the  contest  was  two-fold.  At  the  first  part 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT         323 

of  his  second  term  he  was  probably  at  the  zenith  of 
his  power  over  Congress.  From  then  on  his  power 
steadily  declined.  As  he  sent  in  message  after  message, 
now  on  this  subject  and  now  on  that,  the  members 
paid  steadily  less  and  less  attention  to  his  recommen 
dations.  On  the  other  hand,  while  many  persons 
doubtless  tended  to  become  weary  at  the  very  multitude 
of  his  projects  and  controversies,  his  hold  on  their  con 
fidence  did  not  diminish.  The  great  majority  of  the 
Republican  voters  began  to  see  the  real  and  fundamental 
significance  of  the  contest.  They  were  back  of  his  con 
servation  policies  and  his  attitude  towards  big  business. 
He  had  succeeded  in  making  the  party  as  represented 
by  its  rank  and  file  a  progressive  Federalist  party, 
although  he  had  failed  to  break  the  hold  of  the  reac 
tionary  element  on  the  party  organization  in  Congress 
and  in  the  states. 

These  were  the  existing  political  conditions  as  the 
time  for  the  Republican  Convention  to  nominate  Roose 
velt's  successor  approached.  Roosevelt  was  tremen 
dously  anxious  to  have  follow  him  in  the  White  House 
a  man  who  would  carry  out  his  policies,  especially  his 
conservation  policies — one  who  would  move  as  he  was 
moving  from  the  conservation  of  the  natural  to  the 
conservation  of  the  human  resources  of  the  nation. 
He  desired  a  successor  who  would  take  a  vital  interest 
in  the  movement  just  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  for 
what  has  since  become  known  as  social  legislation, 
such  as  child  labor  laws  and  laws  improving  conditions 
affecting  the  employment  of  women  in  industry.  At 
the  same  time,  he  realized  that  all  the  party  machinery 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  conservatives;  furthermore, 
that  it  would  remain  in  their  hands  in  spite  of  any- 


324  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

thing  he  could  do,  because  at  that  time  the  direct 
election  of  delegates  to  national  conventions  at  party 
primaries  had  not  come  into  general  use.  He  had  to 
rely  on  his  own  popularity  with  the  voters,  and  the 
fear  of  the  average  politician  to  appear  to  ally  him 
self  openly  with  interests  inimical  to  the  public  welfare, 
to  force  the  convention  to  nominate  a  progressive 
Republican  as  his  successor. 

It  is  probable  that  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  persons 
would  have  met  with  his  approval,  as  the  Republican 
Presidential  nominee.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
it  was  evident  that  his  Secretary  of  War,  William  H. 
Taft,  would  command  the  greatest  political  support. 
When  this  fact  became  clear,  he  devoted  himself  to 
securing  Taft's  nomination.  In  this  he  was  successful, 
but  he  was  afraid  to  go  further  and  insist  on  the  nomi 
nation  as  Vice-President  of  a  man  representing  his  own 
point  of  view  towards  public  questions;  neither  did 
he  attempt  to  force  a  reorganization  along  progressive 
lines  of  the  National  Committee,  the  body  which  is 
created  at  each  National  Convention  to  represent  the 
party  between  conventions.  The  conservatives  acqui 
escing  in  his  desire  for  the  nomination  of  Taft,  he  allowed 
them  without  a  contest  to  remain  in  complete  control 
of  the  party  machinery.  This  course  was  taken  by  him 
because  he  was  afraid  that  if  he  tried  to  exert  his  influ 
ence  further  than  the  selection  of  the  Presidential 
candidate,  he  would  produce  a  reaction  which  might 
defeat  Taft. 

Nevertheless,  his  acquiescence  in  the  control  by  his 
political  opponents  over  the  Vice-Presidential  nomination 
and  the  entire  machinery  of  the  party  for  the  next 
four  years  was  the  greatest  political  mistake  of  his  life. 


THE  PROGRESSIVE   MOVEMENT  325 

It  was  due  to  what  we  may  regard  as  perhaps  his  only 
serious  weakness  as  a  political  leader — his  tendency 
to  underrate  his  own  strength.  Hopeful,  buoyant, 
sanguine  of  the  future  for  the  things  he  was  interested 
in,  with  almost  sublime  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  right  principles,  he  never  at  any  given 
time  fully  appreciated  the  extent  of  the  hold  he  then 
had  on  the  American  people.  Whether  he  would  have 
succeeded  in  making  the  organization  of  his  party  more 
responsive  to  progressive  ideals  and  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  its  voters,  had  he  extended  his  fight  in 
1908  for  the  nomination  of  Taft  to  a  general  fight  on 
the  Old  Guard,  we  may  not  know;  but  the  probabilities 
are  that  he  would  have  met  with  a  considerable  measure 
of  success.  As  it  was,  political  conditions  in  the  Repub 
lican  party  on  the  4th  of  March,  1909,  left  his  successor 
the  nominal  leader  of  a  party  under  the  real  control 
of  Roosevelt's  bitter  opponents. 

Mr.  Taft's  selection  of  Mr.  Ballinger  to  be  his  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior  was  a  great  disappointment  to  those 
whose  primary  interest  was  the  continuation  of  Roose 
velt's  attitude  towards  the  use  of  public  lands  and  the 
conservation  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation. 
They  had  hoped  that  the  new  President  would  continue 
in  that  office  James  R.  Garfield,  on  whom  Roosevelt 
had  placed  great  dependence  and  in  whom  the  conser 
vationists  had  absolute  reliance. 

Roosevelt's  last  contention  with  Congress  was  over 
his  Presidential  commissions,  principally  the  National 
Conservation  Commission  and  the  Country  Life  Com 
mission.  As  we  have  already  noted,  one  of  his  last  acts 
as  President  was  to  sign  a  bill  passed  by  Congress  con 
taining  a  rider  which  prohibited  any  officer  or  employee 


326  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

of  the  government  from  serving .  on  any  commission 
or  committee  not  authorized  by  Congress.  When  he 
signed  the  bill,  he  wrote  a  memorandum  to  the  effect 
that  he  regarded  the  restrictive  provision  as  an  uncon 
stitutional  interference  with  his  power  as  President 
to  obtain  information  to  lay  before  Congress,  and  that 
if  he  was  to  continue  President  he  would  disregard 
the  provision.  President  Taft  followed  the  congres 
sional  mandate.  As  a  consequence,  the  whole  plan  of 
inter-departmental  commissions,  which  had  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  conservation  policies  by  supplying 
the  necessary  scientific  information,  fell  to  the  ground. 
When  Roosevelt  was  on  his  hunting  trip  in  Africa, 
things  political  in  this  country  were  rapidly  taking 
on  new  and  strange  aspects.  The  President  called  an 
extra  session  of  Congress  to  fulfil  the  party's  pledge 
to  revise  the  tariff.  The  debate  over  the  Payne  Tariff 
Bill  developed  into  a  struggle  between  those  forces  in 
Congress  which  in  the  main  had  opposed  Roosevelt 
and  the  progressive  or  Roosevelt  Republicans.  In  this 
contest  the  new  President  believed  that  Payne,  Aldrich 
and  his  associates  were  right  and  that  the  tariff  bill 
which  they  succeeded  in  forcing  through  Congress, 
against  the  opposition  of  the  progressive  Republicans, 
was  a  good  measure,  fulfilling  his  own  and  his  party's 
pledge  in  respect  to  the  tariff.  Practically  all  the  pro 
gressive  Republicans  believed  that  the  President  had 
allowed  the  reactionaries  to  trick  him  and  to  deceive 
the  people;  that  the  people  had  voted  the  Republican 
ticket  on  a  pledge  that  the  tariff  should  be  revised  down 
wards,  while  the  Payne  Tariff  Bill,  they  believed,  in 
effect  increased  the  duties.  Factional  party  strife  ran 
high  and  the  Democrats  were  correspondingly  rejoiced. 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT         327 

By  withdrawing  water-power  sites  from  entry, 
Roosevelt  had  prevented  many  of  them  from  being 
taken  by  private  interests.  He  then  asked  Congress 
for  water-power  legislation.  Ballinger  began  to  cancel 
these  withdrawal  orders.  Gifford  Pinchot  at  once  pro 
tested  to  the  President. 

In  August,  while  this  matter  was  pending,  a  young 
special  agent  of  the  General  Land  Office,  named  Glavis, 
called  on  Pinchot  and  stated  that  Ballinger  was  about 
to  patent  improperly  what  were  known  as  the  Cun 
ningham  Coal  Claims  on  the  Bering  River,  back  of 
Controller  Bay,  in  Alaska;  that  Ballinger  had  been  the 
attorney  for  the  claimants,  and  that  when  the  claims 
were  patented  they  were  to  be  transferred  to  the  Gug- 
genheims.  Glavis,  under  the  advice  of  Pinchot,  laid  the 
matter  before  the  President.  The  President  dismissed 
Glavis  from  the  service  for  making  unwarranted  charges 
against  a  superior  officer,  but  his  case  was  taken  up 
by  Collier's  Weekly  and  made  the  subject  of  heated 
public  discussion.  Early  in  January,  1901,  Senator 
Dolliver  read  in  the  Senate  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by 
Gifford  Pinchot,  in  which  the  latter  discussed  and 
defended  the  methods  used  by  the  Forest  Service  in 
defense  of  the  Roosevelt  conservation  policies.  On  the 
same  day  the  President  dismissed  Pinchot. 

Out  of  these  events  grew  the  Pinchot-Glavis-Bal- 
linger  controversy.  At  the  President's  request  Congress 
appointed  a  joint  committee  in  both  Houses  to  inves 
tigate  the  action  of  the  Interior  Department  and  also 
of  the  Forest  Service.  This  committee  sat  throughout 
the  winter  and  spring  of  1910.  There  was  no  investi 
gation  of  the  Forest  Service  but  there  was  a  very 
extensive  investigation  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 


328  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Both  Pinchot  and  Glavis  were  represented  by  counsel, 
the  former  by  Mr.  George  Wharton  Pepper,  of  Phil 
adelphia,  and  the  latter  by  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis, 
now  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  The  hearings  of  the  committee  were  the  principal 
subject  of  a  political  discussion  which  served  to  emphasize 
the  widening  breach  between  the  administration  and 
those  who,  during  Roosevelt's  administration,  had  been 
most  enthusiastic  for  his  domestic  policies,  especially 
conservation.  The  report  of  the  majority  was  favorable 
to  Mr.  Ballinger;  that  of  the  minority  adverse.  The 
Cunningham  claims  were  never  patented  and  the  water- 
power  sites,  except  in  a  few  cases,  were  never  opened  for 
entry.  Mr.  Ballinger  retired  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
in  March,  1911. 

Roosevelt  arrived  at  Khartoum  on  his  way  out 
from  Africa,  on  March  14,  1910.  One  of  those  who 
met  him  was  Mr.  John  Callan  O'Laughlin,  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune.  Mr.  O'Laughlin  brought  with  him  a  letter 
from  Pinchot,  dated  August  31,  1909,  in  which  the 
latter  set  forth  that  the  President  had  lost  the  confidence 
of  the  progressive  Republicans  in  and  out  of  Congress — 
not  necessarily  in  his  intentions,  but  in  his  ability  to 
prevent  the  reactionary  elements  in  the  party  from 
dominating  his  administration.  His  conclusions  were 
based  on  the  President's  refusal  to  continue  the  national 
conservation  commissions  and  other  commissions  in 
the  face  of  congressional  prohibition,  the  signing  and 
commendation  of  the  tariff  bill,  as  well  as  his  strictures 
to  those  opposed  to  that  measure,  and,  finally,  in  the 
activities  of  his  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Ballinger. 

Mr.  Pinchot,  at  Roosevelt's  request,  came  to  Europe 
and  met  him  at  Porto  Maurizio,  on  the  Riviera.  From 


©  Pack  Bros. 

SAGAMORE  HILL 

In  this  beautiful  but  simple  home  at  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island,  overlooking 
the  waters  of  Long  Island  Sound,  Theodore  Roosevelt  spent  the  major  portion 
of  his  life.  At  Oyster  Bay,  Roosevelt  played  as  a  boy,  especially  during  the  sum 
mer  months.  At  Sagamore  Hill,  he  lived  the  year  round,  after  retiring  from  the 
Presidency  in  1908. 


©  Paul  Thompson,  N.  Y. 

TROPHY  ROOM  AT  SAGAMORE  HILL 

In  this  room  are  gathered  a  few  of  the  more  than  ten  thousand  specimens 
which  Colonel  Roosevelt  gathered  on  his  African  hunting  trip.  The  bulk  of  the 
splendid  collection  went  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington. 


THE  PROGRESSIVE   MOVEMENT         329 

this  time  on,  Roosevelt  was  convinced  that  much  of 
the  work  he  had  accomplished  as  President  in  his  fight 
to  make  the  Republican  party  progressive  would  be 
lost  unless  on  his  return  to  this  country  he  was  prepared 
to  take  an  active  part  in  the  advocacy  of  his  conserva 
tion  and  other  policies.  This  of  course  is  not  saying 
that  at  this  time  he  had  any  idea  that  he  would  become 
a  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomination  in  1912. 
He  did  believe,  however,  that  it  would  be  necessary 
for  him  to  take  a  larger  share  in  political  discussions 
and  a  different  attitude  towards  the  Taft  administra 
tion  than  he  had  anticipated  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Taft's 
nomination. 

During  the  entire  period  of  the  progressive  movement, 
which  then  began  as  an  organized  political  movement, 
Roosevelt  and  Taft  were  inevitably  estranged.  It  is, 
however,  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  time  brought 
them  together  again.  Those  of  us  who  took  part  in  the 
contest,  as  well  as  the  principals,  came  to  realize  that 
the  fundamental  differences  between  the  two  men  were 
not  in  ideals  of  service  and  public  welfare,  but  in  interests, 
associations  and  temperament.  They  differed,  too,  in 
their  conceptions  of  the  Presidential  office,  as  exem 
plified  in  their  respective  attitudes  towards  the  act 
of  Congress  prohibiting  the  President's  availing  himself 
of  the  services  of  officers  and  employees  of  the  govern 
ment  on  committees  and  commissions  created  by  vol 
untary  executive  order. 

Roosevelt,  in  his  address  on  his  arrival  in  New  York, 
in  June,  1910,  as  we  have  seen,  expressed  his  eagerness 
to  take  part  in  the  solution  of  the  problems  which  pressed 
upon  the  nation.  "This,"  he  said,  "is  the  duty  of  every 
citizen,  but  is  peculiarly  my  duty;  for  any  man  who 


330  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

has  ever  been  honored  by  being  made  President  of  the 
United  States  is  thereby  forever  rendered  the  debtor 
of  the  American  people  and  is  bound  throughout  his 
life  to  remember  this,  his  prime  obligation." 

He  went  West  and  delivered  several  notable  speeches, 
the  first  on  August  31st,  at  Ossawatomie,  on  the  "New 
Nationalism."  In  this  speech  he  pointed  out  that  many 
who  praised  Lincoln  for  solving  the  problems  of  his 
day  "shrink  from,  or  frantically  denounce,  those  who 
are  trying  to  meet  the  problems  of  the  twentieth  century 
in  the  spirit  which  was  accountable  for  the  successful 
solution  of  the  problems  of  Lincoln's  time." 

He  then  quoted  Lincoln's  statement  that,  "Labor 
is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital;  capital  is  only 
the  fruit  of  labor  and  could  never  have  existed  but  for 
labor.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital  and  deserves 
much  the  higher  consideration.  Capital  has  its  rights 
which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any  other  rights.  .  . 
Nor  should  this  lead  to  a  war  upon  the  owners  of 
property.  Property  is  the  fruit  of  labor;  property  is 
desirable;  it  is  a  positive  good  in  the  world.  Let  not 
him  who  is  houseless  pull  down  the  house  of  another, 
but  let  him  work  diligently  and  build  one  for  himself, 
thus,  by  example,  showing  that  his  own  shall  be  safe 
from  violence  when  built." 

Roosevelt  stated  that  in  these  words  Lincoln  took 
substantially  the  attitude  that  we  ought  to  take,  showing 
the  proper  sense  of  proportion  in  the  relative  estimates 
of  human  rights  and  property  rights,  and  he  added : 

"I  stand  for  the  Square  Deal.  But  when  I  say  that 
I  am  for  the  square  deal  I  mean  not  merely  that  I  stand 
for  fair  play  under  the  present  rules  of  the  game,  but 
that  I  stand  for  having  those  rules  changed  so  as  to 


THE  PROGRESSIVE   MOVEMENT         331 

work  for  a  more  substantial  equality  of  opportunity 
and  of  reward  for  equally  good  service." 

He  then  goes  on  to  point  out  that  we  must  drive 
special  interests  out  of  politics;  that  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  must  effectively  control  the  mighty  com 
mercial  forces  which  they  have  themselves  called  into 
being;  that  we  must  have  complete  and  effective  pub 
licity  of  corporate  affairs ;  that  we  should  have  and  enforce 
laws  to  prohibit  the  use  of  corporate  funds  directly  or  indi 
rectly  for  political  purposes;  that  we  must  have  govern 
ment  supervision  over  capitalization;  that  franchises 
should  never  be  granted  except  for  a  limited  time,  and 
that  combinations  in  industry  which  he  regarded  as  the 
result  of  imperative  economic  laws  which  cannot  be 
repealed  by  political  legislation,  should  be  placed  under 
effective  governmental  supervision.  Turning  to  the 
right  of  the  people  to  regulate  the  terms  and  conditions 
of  labor,  he  advocated  comprehensive  workmen's  com 
pensation  acts,  as  well  as  both  state  and  national  laws 
to  regulate  child  labor,  the  work  of  women  and  the 
enforcement  of  better  sanitary  conditions  for  wage 
workers. 

Though  all  the  things  he  advocated  have  since  been 
embodied  in  law  by  most  of  the  states  and  by  the  Federal 
Government,  it  was  generally  regarded  at  the  time  as 
an  advanced  radical  platform. 

In  the  closing  part  of  the  address,  he  coupled  this 
"radical  platform"  with  his  inborn  federalism,  pointing 
out  that:  "Too  often  the  Federal  Government,  and 
even  the  Federal  judiciary,  has  permitted  itself  to  be 
employed  for  purely  negative  purposes — that  is  to 
thwart  the  action  of  the  states  while  not  permitting 
effective  Federal  action  in  its  place. 


332  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"I  do  not  ask  for  over-centralization,"  he  said, 
"but  I  do  ask  that  we  work  in  a  spirit  of  broad  and 
far-reaching  nationalism  when  we  work  for  what  concerns 
our  people  as  a  whole.  We  are  all  Americans.  Our 
common  interests  are  as  broad  as  the  continent.  I 
speak  to  you  here  in  Kansas  exactly  as  I  would  speak 
in  New  York  or  Georgia,  for  the  most  vital  problems 
are  those  which  affect  us  all  alike.  The  National  Gov 
ernment  belongs  to  the  whole  American  people,  and 
where  the  whole  American  people  are  interested,  that 
interest  can  be  guarded  effectively  only  by  the  National 
Government.  The  betterment  which  we  seek  must  be 
accomplished,  I  believe,  mainly  through  the  National 
Government." 

The  speech  created  a  profound  impression.  The 
great  body  of  the  American  people  were  in  a  mood  to 
applaud  its  spirit  and  accept  its  definite  recommendations. 
In  his  subsequent  speeches  in  Colorado,  and  at  St.  Paul 
before  the  Conservation  Congress,  he  reiterated  the 
main  points  of  what  he  had  said  at  Ossawatomie, 
although  at  St.  Paul  he  naturally  emphasized  the  con 
servation  policies  which  were  so  dear  to  his  heart. 

On  leaving  the  White  House,  he  had  accepted  the 
position  of  contributing  editor  of  the  Outlook.  From 
now  on,  in  his  capacity  of  editor,  as  well  as  in  his  addresses 
and  public  speeches,  he  continued  to  urge,  now  from 
this  angle  and  now  from  that,  the  policies  of  industrial 
justice,  adequate  control  of  large  combinations  of  capital, 
.conservation,  and  new  nationalism.  Twice  again,  in 
his  almost  single-handed  struggle  for  "preparedness," 
and  in  his  speeches  during  the  World  War — he  was,  as 
a  private  citizen,  to  perform  the  wonderful  and  unpar 
alleled  task  of  educating  a  democracy  of  eighty  million 


THE  PROGRESSIVE   MOVEMENT         333 

people  to  the  point  of  demanding  and  carrying  through 
concrete  action  on  the  reforms  he  advocated. 

In  this,  his  first  great  educational  campaign  as  a 
private  citizen,  as  he  made  his  ideas  clearer  and  clearer, 
the  number  of  the  members  of  his  party  who  felt  that 
these  ideas  could  only  be  successfully  carried  out  under  his 
leadership  as  President  became  more  and  more  numerous. 
To  them  were  added  others  who  were  moved  by  the 
consideration — peculiarly  appealing  to  the  professional 
politician — that  he  was  the  only  Republican  who  could 
be  elected,  in  view  of  the  feeling  then  existing  in  regard 
to  the  Taft  administration.  At  any  rate,  it  is  certain 
that  the  attempt  to  gather  the  progressive  forces  around 
the  candidacy  for  the  Republican  nomination  of  Senator 
Robert  LaFollette,  of  Wisconsin,  a  life-long  and  con 
sistent  supporter  of  what  were  then  known  as  radical 
measures,  was  a  failure,  although  the  effort  was  supported 
by  many  men  close  to  Roosevelt.  After  the  campaign 
for  LaFollette  had  been  fairly  launched,  each  day  made 
it  clearer  that  he  could  not  be  nominated.  This  was  no 
reflection  on  the  Wisconsin  Senator.  Roosevelt,  by 
his  acts  as  President  and  even  more  by  his  Ossawatomie 
and  subsequent  speeches  and  writings,  had  made  himself, 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  believed  that  they  were  carrying 
the  spirit  of  Lincoln  into  the  solution  of  modern  indus 
trial  problems,  the  very  embodiment  of  the  progressive 
movement.  To  enter  the  fight  against  the  renomination 
of  Taft  under  the  banner  of  any  other  was  to  try  to 
win  an  Austerlitz  without  Napoleon. 

Roosevelt  neither  encouraged  nor  discouraged  this 
movement.  The  very  success  of  his  efforts  to  educate 
the  people  to  the  importance  of  progressive  principles 
and  the  intensity  of  feeling  in  regard  to  the  Taft  admin- 


334  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

istration,  placed  him  in  a  most  difficult  position.  The 
nomination  was  the  last  thing  he  desired.  He  saw  clearly 
that  to  accept  it  would  be  to  lay  himself  open  to  the 
charge  of  treachery  to  his  successor,  and  that  the  charge 
would  be  believed  by  all  those  who,  though  often  admiring 
much  that  he  did  as  President,  had  failed  to  see  the 
significance  of  his  struggle  with  Congress  and  were 
blind  to  or  out  of  sympathy  with  the  main  purpose 
of  his  whole  course  as  President  and  his  efforts  to  make 
and  keep  the  Republican  party  a  party  capable  of  meeting 
by  affirmative  action  modern  social  and  industrial 
problems.  Furthermore,  though  it  is  a  consideration 
that  I  know  he  brushed  aside,  he  probably  did  have 
the  desire  to  be  again  President,  and  he  had  no  belief 
that  he  would  ever  again  reach  the  Presidency  unless 
he  allowed  Taft,  unopposed  by  him,  to  be  nominated 
in  1912.  His  turn  would  then  come  in  1916. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  fight  to  make  the  Republican 
party  progressive  was  primarily  his  fight.  He  realized 
that  circumstances  might  arise — as  he  believed  later 
they  did  arise — which  would  make  it  a  moral  necessity 
for  him  to  become  a  candidate  for  renomination.  And 
therefore  he  was  obliged  to  leave  himself  free  to  act 
and  to  refuse  to  answer  the  question:  "Will  you  be  a 
candidate?"  —knowing  that  his  enemies  and  even  many 
of  his  friends  would  construe  his  silence  into  a  plot  to 
further  his  own  candidacy. 

Those  progressives,  however,  who  were  active  in 
political  life  were  not  silent.  They  clamored  for  him 
to  become  a  candidate.  He  had  no  idea  he  could  be 
nominated.  But  they,  in  closer  touch  with  the  current 
of  political  thought  in  their  own  communities,  believed 
that  he  could.  On  February  10,  1912,  the  Governors 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT         335 

of  seven  states — West  Virginia,  Nebraska,  New  Hamp 
shire,  Wyoming,  Michigan,  Kansas  and  Missouri,  met 
in  Chicago.  They  sent  him  a  letter  in  which  they  stated 
that  a  large  majority  of  the  Republican  voters  of  the 
country  favored  his  nomination;  that  his  candidacy 
would  insure  success  in  the  next  campaign;  that  he, 
better  than  any  other  man,  represented  the  principles 
and  policies  which  are  necessary  for  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  the  country,  and  finally  appealing  to  him  to 
declare  that  he  would  accept  the  nomination.  The  con 
cluding  paragraph  of  the  letter  was  expressed  as  follows: 

"In  submitting  this  request,  we  are  not  considering 
your  personal  interests.  We  do  not  regard  it  as  proper 
to  consider  either  the  interests  or  the  preference  of 
any  man  as  regards  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency. 
We  are  expressing  our  sincere  belief  and  best  judgment 
as  to  what  is  demanded  of  you  in  the  interests  of  the 
people  as  a  whole.  And  we  feel  that  you  would  be  unre 
sponsive  to  a  plain  public  duty  if  you  should  decline 
to  accept  the  nomination,  coming  as  the  voluntary 
expression  of  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  Republican 
voters  of  the  United  States,  through  the  action  of  their 
delegates  in  the  next  National  Convention." 

Subsequently  the  signers  of  the  appeal  came  to 
New  York  and  had  a  conference  with  Roosevelt  at 
the  house  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Douglas  Robinson. 

On  February  25th,  Roosevelt  issued  a  formal  reply 
to  this  appeal.  He  said  that  he  agreed  with  them  that 
the  matter  was  not  one  to  be  decided  with  any  reference 
to  the  personal  preference  or  interests  of  any  man, 
and  that  he  would  accept  the  nomination  if  it  was  ten 
dered  to  him.  From  that  moment,  the  greatest  party 
struggle  of  modern  times  began. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE 

THROUGHOUT  his  Presidency,  Roosevelt  was 
developing  the  progressive  policies  affecting 
industrial  combinations,  public  lands  and  natural 
resources.  In  the  campaign  of  education  on  which  he 
entered  on  his  return  from  Europe  to  defend  these 
policies,  his  mind,  as  we  have  seen,  was  mainly  directed 
to  these  things,  except  that  we  notice  an  ever-increasing 
emphasis  on  the  necessity  for  the  correction  of  con 
ditions  affecting  labor.  Circumstances  now  forced  another 
side  of  the  progressive  movement  to  the  front — the  effort 
to  give  the  voters  a  greater  direct  control  over  what 
may  be  called  the  machinery  of  government. 

Since  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
there  had  existed  in  practically  all  our  states  universal 
manhood  suffrage.  Members  of  the  legislature,  the 
chief  executive  officers  and,  except  in  parts  of  New 
England,  the  judiciary  were,  as  they  still  are,  elected 
by  popular  vote.  But  legislation,  except  as  embodied 
in  state  constitutions,  was  never  passed  on  by  the  people 
directly,  and  an  executive  officer  or  judge,  once  elected, 
could  not  be  removed  by  popular  vote,  though  he  could 
be  removed  by  the  legislature  in  impeachment  pro 
ceedings.  Furthermore,  though  the  individual  voters 
passed  directly  on  the  question  of  which  of  several 
nominees  for  the  same  office  should  be  elected,  they 
did  not  pass  directly  on  who  should  be  nominated. 
The  system  of  both  parties  was  to  nominate  by  party 

(336) 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE    337 

conventions,  the  members  of  the  party  electing  delegates 
to  the  various  conventions,  at  the  primaries. 

Throughout  the  period  of  Roosevelt's  presidency, 
but  more  especially  during  the  three  years  that  passed 
immediately  after  he  left  office,  the  movement  to  give 
the  voters  greater  direct  control  over  party  and  legis 
lative  machinery  and  executive  action  had  been  growing 
in  volume  and  intensity.  Already  the  system  of  nom 
inating  party  candidates  for  local  and  state  offices  and 
delegates  to  national  conventions  had  been,  in  many 
states,  changed  in  whole  or  in  part  from  the  convention 
system  to  the  system  now  generally  in  force  of  nomi 
nating  candidates  at  primary  elections,  in  which  each 
member  of  the  party  votes  directly  for  the  candidate  of 
his  choice. 

In  the  West  and  Northwest,  considerable  progress 
had  been  made  also  toward  giving  the  voters  greater 
direct  control  over  legislation  by  the  adoption  of  the 
initiative  and  the  referendum;  the  initiative  being 
the  power  of  a  fraction  of  the  voters  to  suggest  an  act, 
which,  being  adopted  by  the  majority  of  the  voters 
voting  on  the  question,  becomes  a  law;  the  referendum 
being  the  power  of  a  fraction  of  the  voters  to  require 
that  an  act  adopted  by  the  legislature  shall  not  become 
a  law  until  ratified  by  a  majority  of  the  voters  voting 
on  the  question  of  its  ratification.  Furthermore,  progress 
had  also  been  made  by  the  advocates  of  the  recall,  or 
the  right  of  a  fraction  of  the  voters  to  have  all  the  voters 
vote  on  the  question  of  whether  a  person  elected  for  a 
given  term  should  serve  out  the  term  for  which  he  was 
elected  or  be  recalled  to  private  life.  The  recall  was 
in  some  states  not  only  applied  to  executive  offices 
but  to  judicial  offices. 

22 


338  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  did  not  originate  this  side  of  the  pro 
gressive  movement,  although  his  successful  insistence, 
as  President,  on  the  government's  being  run  in  the 
public  interest,  was  a  great  stimulus  to  it.  One  of  the 
effects  produced  by  his  contest  with  Congress  was  the 
growth  of  a  popular  demand  that  what  were  termed 
"special  interests"  should  not  run  the  country,  and  the 
belief  became  general  that  every  change  in  the  machinery 
of  government  which  gave  the  voter  greater  direct 
power  made  it  easier  for  the  people  and  harder  for  the 
"special  interests"  to  control.  Large  numbers  of  per 
sons  were,  and  still  are,  convinced  that  it  is  easier  for 
a  few  men,  backed  by  organized  wealth,  to  control  a 
nominating  convention  than  a  primary  election — easier 
for  them  to  control  the  majority  of  the  members  of  a 
legislature  than  the  majority  of  the  electorate  of  a 
state. 

On  his  return  from  Africa,  Roosevelt  inevitably, 
as  one  deeply  interested  in  public  questions,  began  to 
turn  his  attention  to  this  new  phase  of  the  progressive 
movement.  His  whole  attitude  from  the  start,  with 
minor  reservations,  was  sympathetic.  He  was  a  true 
disciple  of  Lincoln.  He  had  an  abiding  trust  in  the 
ultimate  wisdom  of  the  people.  He  did  not  believe 
that  any  particular  class  of  the  people  was  a  better 
judge  of  what  was  wise  or  right  than  the  whole  people. 
S  On  February  21,  1912,  four  days  before  he  formally 
announced  that  he  would  accept  the  Republican  nomi 
nation  if  it  were  tendered  to  him,  he  addressed  the 
Ohio  Constitutional  Convention  in  a  speech  entitled, 
"A  Charter  of  Democracy." 

The  keynote  of  the  speech  was  the  obligation  of  the 
members  of  the  convention  to  draft  a  constitution 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE     339 

which  would  enable  the  people  of  the  state  to  control 
the  government  and  obtain  the  legislation  which  they 
desired. 

"I  believe  in  pure  democracy,"  he  said.  "With 
Lincoln,  I  hold  that  'this  country,  with  its  institutions, 
belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they 
shall  grow  weary  of  the  existing  government,  they  can 
exercise  their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it.'  We 
Progressives  believe  that  the  people  have  the  right, 
the  power,  and  the  duty  to  protect  themselves  and  their 
own  welfare;  that  human  rights  are  supreme  over  all 
other  rights;  that  wealth  should  be  the  servant,  not 
the  master,  of  the  people.  .  .  We  are  engaged  in  one 
of  the  great  battles  of  the  age-long  contest  waged  against 
privilege  on  behalf  of  the  common  welfare.  We  hold 
it  a  prime  duty  of  the  people  to  free  our  government 
from  the  control  of  money  in  politics.  For  this  purpose 
we  advocate,  not  as  ends  in  themselves,  but  as  weapons 
in  the  hands  of  the  people,  all  governmental  devices 
which  will  make  the  representatives  of  the  people  more 
easily  and  certainly  responsive  to  the  people's  will." 

He  gave  his  unqualified  support  to  the  initiative 
and  the  referendum,  though  he  einphasized  the  fact 
that  provision  should  be  made  to  prevent  their  being 
used  either  wantonly  or  too  frequently,  saying  that 
"in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  it  is  far  better  that 
action  on  legislative  matters  should  be  taken  by  those 
specially  delegated  to  perform  the  task;  in  other  words, 
that  the  work  should  be  done  by  the  experts  chosen 
to  perform  it.  But  where  the  men  thus  delegated  fail 
to  perform  their  duty,  then  it  should  be  in  the  power 
of  the  people  themselves  to  perform  the  duty." 

He  was  always  much  more  doubtful  about  the  prac- 


340  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tical  wisdom  of  giving  the  people  the  power  to  recall 
an  elected  executive  officer.  "As  to'the  recall,"  he  said, 
"I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  great  necessity  for 
it  as  regards  short-term  elective  officers.  On  abstract 
grounds,  I  was  originally  inclined  to  be  hostile  to  it. 
I  know  of  one  case  where  it  was  actually  used  with 
mischievous  results.  On  the  other  hand,  in  three  cases 
in  municipalities  on  the  Pacific  coast  which  have  come 
to  my  knowledge  it  was  used  with  excellent  results. 
I  believe  it  should  be  generally  provided,  but  with  such 
restrictions  as  will  make  it  available  only  when  there 
is  a  widespread  and  genuine  public  feeling  among  a 
majority  of  the  voters." 

In  regard  to  the  advisability  of  permitting  the  people 
to  recall  by  popular  vote  a  judge  before  the  expiration 
of  his  term  of  office  he  was  still  more  doubtful.  He  knew 
personally  many  judges  who  were  wholly  unfit  to  hold 
judicial  positions.  He  saw  clearly  the  causes  which 
at  that  time  created  the  popular  demand  that  the  people 
should  have  a  right  to  get  rid  of  a  judge  whom  they  had 
ceased  to  trust,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  he  realized 
the  importance,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  of  "an  inde 
pendent  and  upright  judiciary  which  fearlessly  stands 
for  the  right,  even  against  popular  clamor,"  and  he 
pointed  out  that  such  a  judiciary,  provided  it  "also 
understands  and  sympathizes  with  popular  needs,  is  a 
great  asset  to  popular  government."  His  whole  attitude 
at  that  time,  and  I  believe  subsequently,  was  that  under 
usual  state  conditions,  the  power  to  recall  judges  is  an 
unnecessary  and  harmful  power,  but  that  there  may 
arise  conditions  in  which  the  power  of  the  people  to 
recall  a  judge  will  become  a  beneficial  power. 

The  clause  of  the  constitution  which  forbids  depriving 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE     341 

any  person  of  "liberty  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law,"  had  been  repeatedly  applied  by  the  courts 
to  nullify  much-needed  social  legislation.  The  provi 
sion  simply  means  that  any  act  of  a  state  legislature 
is  void  wrhich  violates  current  fundamental  ideas  of 
what  is  fair.  Roosevelt  believed  that  judges,  through 
ignorance  of  social  and  industrial  conditions,  even  among 
wage  workers,  often  regarded  social  legislation  based 
on  enlightened  ideas  of  justice  as  fundamentally  unfair. 

When  he  was  in  the  New  York  State  Legislature, 
the  Court  of  Appeals  had  declared  unconstitutional 
a  law  which  forbade  making  cigars  in  tenement  houses, 
and  had  criticised  it  as  an  assault  upon  the  "hallowed 
influence  of  home."  Roosevelt  had  seen  the  dwellings 
to  which  these  words  were  applied  and  realized  that  the 
judges  who  could  thus  describe  a  single  room  in  which 
two  families  lived,  ate  and  slept,  were  out  of  touch 
with  fundamental  social  needs.  This  case  made  a  deep 
impression  on  him. 

When  he  proposed  "the  recall  of  judicial  decisions," 
he  meant  that  when  the  Supreme  Court  of  a  state  declared 
a  piece  of  social  legislation  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
attack  upon  property  rights,  the  question  should  be 
referred  to  popular  vote.  If  the  people  by  their  vote 
sustained  the  statute,  it  should  be  law  in  spite  of  the 
court's  opinion  that  it  violated  the  constitution. 

This  was  in  effect  a  method  of  amending  the  consti 
tution.  But  many  people  misunderstood  Roosevelt's 
proposal.  They  thought  that  he  intended  that  an 
appeal  should  lie  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  a  state 
to  the  voters  of  the  state,  so  that  if  in  a  given  case  the 
Supreme  Court  should  give  judgment  in  favor  of  Jones 
the  people  might  reverse  the  judgment  and  cause 


342  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

it  to  be  entered  in  favor  of  Smith.  .The  reaction  of  mem 
bers  of  the  Bar  and  the  conservative  elements  of  the 
country,  as  well  as  of  large  numbers  of  those  in  sympathy 
with  all  the  rest  of  his  address,  was,  as  a  consequence, 
prompt,  vigorous  and  condemnatory. 

Roosevelt,  of  course,  never  dreamed  of  proposing 
that  the  reversal  of  the  decision  of  the  court  as  to  the 
constitutionality  of  the  act  would  reverse  the  court's 
judgment  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff  or  the  defendant, 
and  he  perhaps  was  never  convinced  that  there  could 
be  any  honest  misunderstanding  of  what  he  meant. 
He  often  pointed  out  that  he  had  never  said  that  the 
judgment  of  the  court  should  be  reversed,  but  merely 
that  the  decision  that  the  act  was  unconstitutional 
should  be  recalled,  and  that  under  his  proposal,  there 
fore,  the  only  effect  of  a  vote  in  favor  of  the  act  by  the 
people  would  be  to  make  the  act  a  law  from  the  time 
when  the  favorable  vote  was  recorded. 

The  issue  really  presented  by  his  proposal  was  this: 
When  the  court  declares  that  an  act  deprives  persons 
of  liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  should 
the  adoption  of  a  constitutional  amendment  by  popular 
vote  be  the  only  remedy  or  should  the  people  also  have 
the  right  by  popular  vote  to  assert  that  that  particular 
act  does  not  relate  to  the  constitutional  requirement 
of  due  process  of  law? 

Time  usually  enables  us  to  view  bitter  political 
controversies  in  a  dispassionate  spirit.  The  intense 
feeling  that  raged  for  months  over  the  proposal  to  "recall 
judicial  decisions"  is  not  an  exception  to  this  rule.  Those 
of  us  who  were  members  of  the  Progressive  party  see 
now  that  it  was  not  unreasonable  for  those  who  read 
Roosevelt's  address  to  the  Ohio  Constitutional  Con- 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE    343 

vention  to  believe  that  he  intended  that  the  judgment 
for  one  individual  given  by  the  highest  state  court  should 
be  reversible  at  the  polls.  We  can  also  admit  that, 
viewing  the  proposal  as  they  did,  they  were  entirely 
justified  in  their  unmeasured  condemnation.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  most  conservative  member  of  the  Bar, 
though  he  may  strongly  disapprove  the  method  for 
amending  the  constitution  suggested  by  Roosevelt, 
will,  if  he  understands  it  correctly,  at  least  admit  that 
it  was  not  a  revolutionary  proposal. 

The  shifting  of  popular  interest  makes  the  real 
issue  raised  by  the  proposal  of  no  present  moment. 
The  general  discussion  and  more  widespread  knowledge 
of  social  conditions  have  recently  rendered  it  possible 
to  maintain  before  the  courts  the  constitutionality  of 
any  social  legislation  held  by  the  prevailing  morality 
or  preponderating  public  opinion  to  be  greatly  or  imme 
diately  necessary  to  the  public  welfare.  The  cause,  there 
fore,  wThich  created  a  desire  to  curb  the  power  of  judges 
to  declare  acts  unconstitutional  has  largely  disappeared 
and  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions,  never  generally 
understood  by  its  advocates  or  opponents,  has  passed 
to  the  realm  of  forgotten  things. 

But  on  the  course  of  Roosevelt's  life,  it  had  a  pro 
found  effect.  Looking  back  now  over  the  events  leading 
up  to  the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1912, 
it  would  appear  almost  certain  that  had  he,  in  his  address 
before  the  Ohio  Convention,  either  refrained  from 
making  the  proposal  or  had  he  called  it  a  new  method 
of  amending  the  constitution,  and  carefully  explained 
it  so  that  it  could  not  have  been  misunderstood,  it  is 
most  probable  that  he  would  have  been  nominated 
at  Chicago,  and  that  the  whole  course  of  the  recent 


344  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

history  of  the  United  States  would  have  been  other 
than  it  has  been.  As  it  was,  the  proposal,  as  understood, 
did  not  gain  him  adherents.  On  the  contrary,  it  aroused 
to  active  opposition  many  who  would  otherwise  have 
been  neutral,  or  even  friendly  to  his  candidacy. 

Apart  from  his  mistake  in  the  way  he  presented  his 
proposal  affecting  courts'  decisions  in  constitutional 
questions,  this  speech  before  the  Ohio  Constitutional 
Convention  was  one  of  his  greatest  public  utterances. 
On  March  20th  he  made  a  still  greater  address  in  Carnegie 
Hall,  New  York,  on  "The  Right  of  the  People  to  Rule," 
perhaps  the  greatest  public  address  he  ever  made.  As 
I  have  stated  in  the  introductory  chapter  of  this  history, 
those  who  were  close  to  him  at  this  period  of  his  life 
realize  that  his  making  the  fight  for  the  Republican 
nomination  was  an  act  of  supreme  moral  courage.  He 
knew  that  many  of  his  best  friends  and  of  his  admirers 
would  always  misunderstand  and  misconstrue  his 
motives.  His  true  motives  he  never  more  clearly 
or  eloquently  expressed  than  in  the  concluding 
paragraphs  of  his  Carnegie  Hall  address,  in  which 
he  said: 

"Friends,  our  task  as  Americans  is  to  strive  for  social 
and  industrial  justice,  achieved  through  the  genuine 
rule  of  the  people.  This  is  our  end,  our  purpose.  The 
methods  for  achieving  the  end  are  merely  expedients, 
to  be  finally  accepted  or  rejected  according  as  actual 
experience  shows  that  they  work  well  or  ill.  But  in 
our  hearts  we  must  have  this  lofty  purpose,  and  we  must 
strive  for  it  in  all  earnestness  and  sincerity,  or  our  work 
will  come  to  nothing.  In  order  to  succeed  we  need  leaders 
of  inspired  idealism,  leaders  to  whom  are  granted  great 
visions,  who  dream  greatly  and  strive  to  make  their 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE     345 

dreams  come  true;    who  can  kindle  the  people  with  the 
fire  from  their  own  burning  souls. 

"The  leader  for  the  time  being,  whoever  he  may  be, 
is  but  an  instrument,  to  be  used  until  broken  and  then 
to  be  cast  aside;  and  if  he  is  worth  his  salt,  he  will  care 
no  more  when  he  is  broken  than  a  soldier  cares  when 
he  is  sent  where  his  life  is  forfeit  in  order  that  the  victory 
may  be  won.  In  the  long  fight  for  righteousness  the 
watchword  for  all  of  us  is,  'Spend  and  be  spent.'  It  is 
of  little  matter  wrhether  any  one  man  fails  or  succeeds; 
but  the  cause  shall  not  fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of  man 
kind.  We,  here  in  America,  hold  in  our  hands  the  hope 
of  the  world,  the  fate  of  the  coming  years;  and  shame 
and  disgrace  will  be  ours  if  in  our  eyes  the  light  of  high 
resolve  is  dimmed,  if  we  trail  in  the  dust  the  golden 
hopes  of  men.  If  on  this  new  continent  we  merely  build 
another  country  of  great  but  unjustly  divided  material 
prosperity,  wre  shall  have  done  nothing;  and  we  shall 
do  as  little  if  we  merely  set  the  greed  of  envy  against 
the  greed  of  arrogance,  and  thereby  destroy  the  material 
well-being  of  all  of  us.  To  turn  this  government  into 
government  by  a  plutocracy  or  government  by  a  mob 
would  be  to  repeat  on  a  larger  scale  the  lamentable 
failures  of  the  world  that  is  dead.  We  stand  against 
all  tyranny,  by  the  few,  or  by  the  many.  We  stand 
for  the  rule  of  the  many  in  the  interest  of  all  of  us,  for 
the  rule  of  the  many  in  the  spirit  of  courage,  of  common 
sense,  of  high  purpose,  above  all,  in  a  spirit  of  kindly 
justice  towards  every  man  and  every  woman." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION  IN  1912 

THE  contest  for  delegates  to  the  Republican 
National  Convention  began  in  February,  1912, 
and  continued  unremittingly  until  the  middle 
of  June.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  progressives 
desired  the  nomination  of  Roosevelt,  though  Senator 
LaFollette,  of  Wisconsin,  and  Senator  Cummins,  of 
Iowa,  were  supported  by  the  progressives  in  their  respec 
tive  states.  LaFollette  also  had  considerable  support 
throughout  the  central  and  western  states,  though 
North  Dakota  was  the  only  state  other  than  Wisconsin 
in  which  his  vote  exceeded  that  cast  for  Roosevelt. 
The  conservatives  supported  President  Taft. 

The  contest  for  the  delegates  cannot  be  described  as 
a  contest  between  the  two  factions  to  test  their  relative 
strength  with  the  voters  of  the  party.  There  was  never 
really  any  doubt  that  the  great  majority  of  the  Repub 
licans  desired  the  nomination  of  Roosevelt,  any  more 
than  there  was  any  doubt  that  a  large  number  would 
not  support  the  President  if  he  were  renominated.  There 
fore,  the  outcome  of  the  contest  for  delegates  depended 
on  the  party  rules  and  on  the  laws  of  the  different  states 
regulating  the  selection  of  delegates.  Whenever  the 
delegates  were  selected  by  the  convention  system, 
Taft  delegates  were  chosen;  while,  except  in  New  Eng 
land,  wherever  the  primary  election  laws  permitted  a 
free  expression  of  preference  by  the  voters,  or  a  free 
choice  of  delegates  pledged  in  advance  to  one  or  the 

(346) 


THE   FIGHT  FOR  THE   NOMINATION    347 

other  of  the  candidates  for  the  nomination,  the  progres 
sive  forces  were  practically  everywhere  overwhelmingly 
victorious.  / 

In  all  the  Southern  states  except  North  Carolina, 
the  Republican  party  was  not  a  political  party,  but  a 
collection  of  political  groups  led  by  Federal  office 
holders.  The  delegates  from  these  states,  as  in  our 
previous  Republican  National  Conventions  when  a  Presi 
dent  sought  renomination,  were  for  the  President.  On 
the  other  hand,  New  Jersey,  Wisconsin,  North  Dakota, 
Oregon  and  California  had  direct  presidential  preference 
primary  laws;  that  is,  each  voter  not  only  voted  for 
delegates  to  the  convention,  but  the  names  of  the  dif 
ferent  candidates  for  the  Presidential  nomination  were 
printed  on  the  ballot,  each  voter  having  the  opportunity 
to  indicate  his  preference.  In  all  these  states,  the  pro 
gressives  scored  decisive  victories.  In  North  Dakota, 
out  of  48,000  ballots  cast,  President  Taf  t  received  between 
3,000  and  4,000,  all  the  rest  being  divided  between 
Roosevelt  and  LaFollette.  In  Wisconsin,  Roosevelt's 
name  was  not  on  the  ballot,  and  LaFollette  won  over 
the  President  by  a  majority  of  more  than  two  to  one. 
Roosevelt  carried  New  Jersey  by  over  16,000,  losing  only 
two  of  the  twenty-one  counties,  and  securing  a  solid  dele 
gation  in  his  favor.  He  carried  California  by  76,000. 

There  were  other  states  in  which  the  laws  provided 
for  the  election  of  delegates  at  the  primaries,  and  in 
some  of  these  states,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  the  candidate 
for  delegate  could  print  on  the  ballot  the  name  of  the 
Presidential  nominee  for  whom  he  intended  to  vote  in 
the  convention,  if  he  were  chosen  a  delegate.  It  was 
in  some  of  these  states  that  Roosevelt  secured  his  great 
est  victories.  On  April  19th  he  carried  Illinois  by 


348  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

150,000;  on  April  13th  he  swept  Pennsylvania,  electing 
all  but  twelve  of  the  seventy-six  delegates  from  that 
state,  including  the  twelve  delegates  at  large;  while  on 
May  21st  he  carried  Ohio  by  30,000.  He  also  carried 
Minnesota,  West  Virginia  and  Maryland. 

In  New  England  there  were  some  real  contests 
in  the  states  which  have  modern  primary  laws.  Roose 
velt  secured  the  delegation  from  Maine.  Massachusetts 
passed  a  preferential  primary  law.  Under  this  law, 
the  Roosevelt  forces  selected  the  eight  delegates  at 
large  by  a  plurality  of  about  8,000  and  ten  of  the  twenty- 
eight  district  delegates.  Under  the  law,  the  voter  had 
the  right  to  express  his  preference  as  between  Presi 
dential  candidates.  In  this  preferential  vote,  the  Presi 
dent  had  a  plurality  of  about  4,000.  Roosevelt  at  once 
issued  a  statement  that  he  would  expect  the  delegates 
at  large  to  disregard  their  pledges  and  to  support  the 
President  in  the  convention. 

The  result  of  the  elections  in  states  having  primary 
laws  which  permitted  a  free  choice  on  the  part  of  the 
voters  was  a  great  personal  triumph  for  Roosevelt. 
In  practically  all  these  states,  except  California,  the 
entire  political  machinery  was  in  the  hands  of  his  oppo 
nents,  and  his  great  victories  resulted  in  the  nomination 
for  local  offices  and  as*  Roosevelt  delegates  to  the  con 
vention  of  many  men  who  were  new  to  and  wholly 
inexperienced  in  the  game  of  politics.  There  were  of 
course  exceptions.  The  decisive  victory  in  Pennsylvania 
was  due  in  no  small  part  to  the  ability  and  experience 
in  politics  of  one  man,  William  Flinn,  ably  seconded 
by  Mr.  E.  A.  Van  Valkenburg,  of  the  Philadelphia 
North  American,  and  Alexander  P.  Moore,  of  the  Pitts 
burgh  Leader. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE   NOMINATION     349 

Mr.  Flinn  was  a  resident  of  Pittsburgh,  and  the  head 
of  one  of  the  largest  contracting  firms  in  the  United 
States.  In  his  younger  days  he  was  an  associate  of 
Chris  Magee,  the  boss  of  Pittsburgh,  and  he  had  had  a 
long  experience  in  the  State  Senate.  Defeated  by  the 
late  Senator  Quay,  he  had  been  for  many  years  out 
of  politics,  but  he  knew  the  game,  and  like  many  another 
with  a  similar  history,  the  career  of  Roosevelt  as  Presi 
dent  had  made  him  an  enthusiastic  progressive  and  a 
determined  opponent  to  the  old  type  of  machine  politics, 
of  which  he  had  once  been  a  supporter.  Mr.  Flinn, 
almost  single-handed,  undertook  to  organize  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania. 

He  discovered  that  the  opposition  forces  expected 
to  defeat  most  of  the  Roosevelt  delegates  by  the  ancient 
political  device  of  securing  several  persons  to  run  as 
Roosevelt  men,  thereby  dividing  the  progressive  vote. 
With  such  assistance  as  he  could  secure,  though  only 
one  business  man  of  prominence  was  willing  to  help, 
two  Roosevelt  delegates  were  selected  in  each  district. 
No  man  who  was  in  the  employ  of  a  large  corporation 
or  who  owed  money  at  the  bank  was  taken,  and  rarely 
men  who  were  in  active  politics.  In  the  meantime, 
under  the  name  of  the  Keystone  Advertising  Company 
of  Pittsburgh,  he  secured  the  names  and  addresses 
of  the  1,600,000  voters  in  the  state.  Purchasing  twenty- 
two  tons  of  postal  cards,  he  sent  to  each  voter,  immedi 
ately  before  the  election,  the  names  of  the  bona  fide 
Roosevelt  delegates  and  their  alternates  in  his  district. 
The  task  of  addressing  these  postal  cards  and  printing 
the  names  of  between  four  arid  five  hundred  national, 
alternate  and  state  delegates  was  enormous,  especially 
as  delegates  could  and,  in  spite  of  the  care  taken  in 


350  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

their  selection,  did  withdraw  up  to  within  two  weeks 
of  the  election.  The  work  was  done  so  quickly  and 
quietly  that  the  opposition  did  not  realize  what  was  going 
forward  until  it  was  too  late  to  counteract  the  effect. 
The  fact  that  the  sending  out  of  merely  one  postal  card  to 
each  voter  in  the  state  cost  $23,000  shows  the  enormous 
expense  of  conducting  a  modern  political  campaign. 

After  all,  however,  it  was  Roosevelt's  own  per 
sonality  and  labors  that  made  success  possible.  Always 
a  vigorous  campaigner,  he  made  what  the  newspapers 
aptly  described  as  a  whirlwind  campaign  through  each 
of  the  principal  states  in  which  a  primary  election 
was  to  take  place,  immediately  prior  to  the  election. 
Never  had  the  proverbial  "oldest  inhabitant"  seen 
such  crowds — never  such  enthusiasm.  And  those  who 
heard  him  heard  something  more  than  good  campaign 
oratory.  He  had  a  double  message  to  tell — the  right  of 
the  people  to  govern  themselves,  and  the  necessity  of 
obtaining,  through  the  rule  of  the  people,  greater  social 
and  industrial  justice.  Both  messages  were  dear  to  his 
heart,  and  he  had  already  laid  the  foundations  for  his 
arguments  in  a  series  of  great  speeches. 

In  spite  of  these  victories  at  the  primaries,  the  ulti 
mate  result  was  in  the  greatest  doubt.  The  President 
secured  practically  all  the  Southern  delegates.  He  also 
secured,  though  the  delegates  were  unpledged,  all  the 
delegates  from  the  great  State  of  New  York.  In  that 
state  the  primary  election,  especially  in  New  York 
County,  was  conducted  so  loosely  that  in  many  of  the 
districts  there  was  practically  no  election  at  all,  while 
in  at  least  400  out  of  the  1,694  election  districts  some 
thing  was  lacking — ballots,  tally  sheets  or  election 
officials.  Furthermore,  the  President  secured  a  number 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION     351 

of  delegates,  though  far  fewer  than  his  opponents,  in 
the  states  having  good  primary  laws,  and  as  has  been 
stated,  practically  all  the  delegates  in  those  states  in 
which  the  old  convention  system  of  selecting  delegates 
prevailed. 

About  the  middle  of  May,  the  New  York  Tribune, 
favorable  to  Taft,  claimed  410  delegates  for  the  Presi 
dent,  conceding  only  251  to  Roosevelt;  while  the  New 
York  Mail,  favorable  to  Roosevelt,  claimed  that  he  had 
291  delegates  and  conceded  only  232  to  the  President. 
The  total  number  of  delegates  elected  and  to  be  elected 
was  1,078,  and  a  bare  majority,  or  540,  was  sufficient 
to  secure  the  nomination.  Only  in  those  states  which 
had  Presidential  primaries  was  the  result  unquestioned. 
In  the  other  states,  contest  after  contest  between  rival 
delegates,  each  claiming  that  they  were  entitled  to  seats 
in  the  convention,  was  filed  with  the  National  Com 
mittee — the  body  charged  with  the  duty  of  making 
up  the  temporary  roll  of  the  convention.  When,  in  June, 
a  short  time  before  the  convention,  the  last  state  had 
selected  delegates,  no  fewer  than  220  contests  were 
before  the  National  Committee. 

The  National  Committee  was  composed  of  one 
member  from  each  state,  each  delegate  having  been 
selected  four  years  before  by  the  delegates  from  his 
state  to  the  National  Convention  of  1908.  The  forces 
supporting  the  President  had  absolute  control  of  the 
committee.  If  they  used  that  control  to  place  the 
Taft  delegates  on  the  temporary  roll  of  the  convention 
in  practically  every  contested  case,  without  any  real 
regard  to  the  merits  of  the  controversy,  then  the  con 
servative  forces  would  be  able  to  control  the  organization 
of  the  convention.  If  they  weakened  in  their  apparent 


352  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

determination  to  do  this,  because  of  the  great  popular 
outcry  against  it,  they  would  lose  control  of  the 
convention,  and  Roosevelt  would  certainly  be  nominated. 
They  did  not  weaken.  Until  Missouri  was  reached  in 
the  progress  through  the  alphabetical  roll  of  the  contested 
cases,  only  one  case  was  decided  in  favor  of  a  Roosevelt 
delegate,  and  many  of  the  decisions  of  the  committee 
were  well  calculated  to  arouse  the  fierce  resentment 
and  hot  indignation  of  the  progressives. 
/vt  In  the  Ninth  Alabama  district  a  convention  of 
thirty  delegates  was  held,  of  whom  eighteen  were 
Roosevelt  men  and  twelve  Taft  men.  Two  Roosevelt 
delegates  to  the  National  Convention  were  selected; 
whereupon  the  twelve  Taft  men  withdrew,  held  a  con 
vention  of  their  own,  and  selected  two  Taft  delegates. 
The  National  Committee  seated  the  Taft  delegates. 
In  the  Thirteenth  Indiana  district  a  convention  of 
ninety-seven  delegates  was  held.  On  a  viva  voce  vote, 
the  chairman  declared  the  Taft  delegates  elected, 
and  immediately  adjourned  the  convention  amid  great 
disorder.  Subsequently,  fifty-one  of  the  delegates  to 
that  convention  made  affidavit  that  they  had  voted 
for  the  Roosevelt  delegates,  and  three  took  affidavit 
that  they  had  voted  for  other  delegates,  but  not  for 
Taft's  supporters.  The  National  Committee  seated  the 
Taft  delegates,  on  the  ground  that  it  could  not  question 
the  decision  of  the  chairman  of  the  convention. 

In  the  Indiana  State  Convention,  which  selected  the 
delegates  at  large  from  that  state,  the  Taft  delegates 
from  one  county,  whose  seats  were  contested,  were 
placed  on  the  temporary  roll  by  the  Credentials  Com 
mittee,  and  were  thereupon  allowed  to  vote  as  to  whether 
they  should  retain  those  seats  or  not;  and  as  a  result, 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE   NOMINATION     353 

the  Taf t  forces  assumed  control  and  sent  a  Taf t  delegation 
to  Chicago.  With  the  contested  seats  left  out,  the  Roose 
velt  men  had  a  clear  majority  in  the  State  Convention. 
The  National  Committee  seated  the  Taft  delegates 
at  large  from  Indiana. 

In  one  large  county  in  Arizona,  a  majority  of  the 
county  committee  caused  a  primary  to  be  held,  at  which 
the  Roosevelt  delegates  to  the  State  Convention  were 
victorious  over  the  Taft  delegates  by  an  enormous 
majority.  Subsequently,  the  minority  of  the  county 
committee  met  and  selected  Taft  delegates.  As  a  result, 
the  State  Convention  sent  a  Taft  delegation  to  Chicago. 
The  National  Committee  seated  the  Taft  delegates. 

The  case  which  aroused  the  greatest  interest  and 
indignation  was  that  of  two  delegates  from  California. 
The  state  law  provided  that  all  the  delegates  from  the 
state  should  be  elected  from  the  state  at  large,  and 
not  by  districts.  At  the  primary  election,  Roosevelt 
carried  the  state  by  77,000,  and  a  solid  delegation 
pledged  to  him  was  elected.  There  had  been  no  question 
by  any  one  as  to  the  law,  prior  to  the  primary,  and  the 
Taft  candidates  for  delegates  went  into  the  primary 
without  making  any  conditions  or  protests.  It  was 
claimed  before  the  National  Committee  that  in  one 
congressional  district  in  San  Francisco  the  Taft  dele 
gates  resident  in  that  district  received  more  votes  than 
the  two  Roosevelt  delegates,  and  that  the  rules  of  the 
National  Committee  did  not  permit  the  election  of  all 
the  delegates  from  a  state  at  large,  but  required  each 
state  to  send  two  delegates  from  each  congressional 
district,  no  matter  what  the  law  of  the  state  might 
provide.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  were  no  district 
delegates  and  no  district  voting,  the  National  Com 
es 


354  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

mi ttee  seated  the  two  Taft  delegates  from  San  Francisco. 
An  analysis  of  the  contests  would  seem  to  show 
that  there  were  seventy-two  Roosevelt  delegates  excluded 
who  might  have  been,  and  some  of  whom  certainly 
would  have  been,  seated  had  the  National  Committee 
acted  in  fact — as  it  was  supposed  to  act  in  theory — as 
a  judicial  body. 

As,  one  after  the  other,  these  and  other  similar 
decisions  of  the  National  Committee  were  announced 
and  it  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  conservative 
forces  were  determined  to  prevent  Roosevelt's  nomi 
nation,  the  demand  from  his  lieutenants  in  Chicago 
that  he  should  go  to  that  city  and  take  charge  of  the 
fight  became  insistent.  The  convention  was  to  meet 
on  Tuesday,  June  18th.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  left 
Oyster  Bay  for  New  York  on  the  morning  of  Friday, 
the  14th,  but  even  then  he  withheld  a  final  decision  on 
the  question  whether  he  would  or  would  not  go  to 
Chicago,  saying,  as  he  slipped  into  his  car:  "We  may 
fly  back  here  tonight,  and,  by  gracious,  I  hope  we  do." 
The  hope  was  not  to  be  fulfilled,  and  in  spite  of  the  storm 
of  criticism  which  his  going  to  Chicago  aroused,  it  was 
the  right  thing  for  him  to  do.  There  had  been  a  leak 
in  his  private  phone  to  Chicago;  there  were  compli 
cations  which  made  it  essential  that  he  should  be  on 
the  spot.  The  fight  was  essentially  his  fight.  Thousands 
of  men  in  all  parts  of  the  country  had  joined  in  this 
supreme  effort  to  make  the  Republican  party  a  radical 
or  progressive  party  because  he  had  created  and  was 
willing  to  lead  the  movement.  The  action  of  the  National 
Committee  on  the  contests  created  an  unprecedented 
situation.  His  adherents  needed  and  were  entitled  to 
have  something  better  than  his  long-distance  advice. 


THE   FIGHT  FOR  THE   NOMINATION    355 

The  Roosevelt  party  left  the  Grand  Union  Station 
at  5:30  on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  they  left  Oyster 
Bay.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  skilfully  avoided  the 
enormous  crowd  waiting  to  see  him  off  by  reaching 
the  train  by  the  freight  elevator,  thus  avoiding  the 
regular  entrances.  But  the  next  day,  when  the  train 
arrived  in  Chicago,  there  was  no  avoiding  the  crowd 
of  more  than  fifty  thousand  people  that  broke  through 
the  police  lines  and  jammed  the  platform,  pushing, 
yelling  and  cheering.  As  his  automobile  passed  through 
the  streets  from  the  station  to  the  Congress  Hotel 
on  Michigan  Avenue,  it  pushed  its  way  through  packed 
masses  of  people,  ahead,  behind  and — at  the  cross 
streets — on  either  side,  nothing  but  people  wedged  in  like 
pins  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see.  Everybody  yelled; 
everybody  howled,  and  all  were  borne  along  by  the 
irresistible  force  of  the  delighted  mob.  Rarely  had 
any  public  man  in  this  country  aroused  such  intense 
enthusiasm.  Everything  combined  to  this  end — his 
great  popularity,  the  wonderful  fight  he  had  made, 
the  deep  and  widespread  conviction  that  his  enemies 
were  plotting  to  steal  the  nomination  he  had  won,  and 
that  he  was  there  to  fight  that  theft  to  the  end. 

Chicago  wrent  wild.  For  seven  days — all  day  long 
and  far  into  the  night — the  excitement  continued. 
Great  crowds  filled  the  streets  in  front  of  his  hotel, 
jammed  the  corridors  and  surged  through  the  Roosevelt 
headquarters.  Bands  there  were  innumerable.  Each 
state  delegation  seemed  to  have  one.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  crowd,  not  content  with  the  strength  of  their 
own  voices,  procured  mechanical  devices  to  increase 
the  noise.  The  Roosevelt  headquarters  were  in  the 
Florentine  room,  at  the  Congress  Hotel,  a  large  room 


356  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

on  the  second  floor  at  the  north  end.  In  this  room  some 
body  was  usually  speaking.  Anybody  could  speak 
that  wanted  to,  and  the  crowd  poured  in  one  door  and 
out  the  other,  cheering  or  repeating  over  and  over  again, 
"We  want  Teddy!  We  want  Teddy!" 

Of  course  no  business  was  transacted  in  these  head 
quarters,  unless  there  was  a  meeting  of  delegates,  and 
then  it  usually  took  more  than  ten  minutes  to  clear 
the  place.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  had  their  own  per 
sonal  apartments  and  Roosevelt  had  a  suite  of  rooms 
as  his  personal  headquarters  in  the  northeast  corner 
of  the  same  floor.  The  doors  were  guarded  by  wise 
persons  who  knew  who  should  and  who  should  not 
be  admitted.  There  were  a  goodly  number  of  favored 
ones  who  succeeded  in  being  admitted.  Inside,  in  the 
reception  room,  there  was  an  ever-changing  and  usually 
intensely  interesting  group  of  men  whose  names  were 
well  known  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other 
for  what  they  had  accomplished. 

Roosevelt  himself  was  usually  in  an  inner  room, 
seeing  one  or  two  persons  at  a  time.  Occasionally, 
however,  he  would  come  out  to  the  reception  room, 
and  when  he  did  the  vigorous  force  of  his  personality 
was  reflected  in  the  increased  animation  of  the  entire 
company.  When  there  was  nothing  for  those  in  the 
reception  room  to  do — and  a  good  deal  of  the  time 
the  majority  had  nothing  to  do — they  would  use  up 
their  energy  in  fruitless  discussions  and  in  the  passing 
on  of  what  always  proved  to  be  false  rumors  that  this 
or  that  delegate  was  about  to  abandon  Taft. 

On  Monday  evening  Roosevelt  addressed  a  great 
audience  at  the  Auditorium.  He  had  necessarily  been 
much  interrupted  in  the  preparation  of  this  address, 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION    357 

and  its  substance  and  delivery  left  much  to  be  desired, 
but  the  concluding  words  rang  all  over  the  country: 
"We  stand  at  Armageddon  and  we  battle  for  the  Lord." 
To  his  opponents  this  was  a  mere  catch  phrase,  but 
it  thoroughly  expressed  his  own  motives  for  making 
the  fight. 

Later  on,  the  same  evening,  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Roosevelt  delegates,  it  was  determined  that  when  the 
convention  w~as  called  to  order  by  Victor  Rosewater, 
the  chairman  of  the  National  Committee,  Governor 
Hadley  of  Missouri,  the  Roosevelt  floor  leader,  should 
make  a  motion  that  only  the  delegates  whose  seats 
were  uncontested  should  participate  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  convention  until  the  contests  were  decided.  If 
this  motion  were  ruled  out  of  order,  he  was  to  appeal 
from  the  decision  of  the  chair.  If  the  chair  allowed 
the  delegates  whose  seats  were  contested  to  vote  on  this 
appeal,  he  was  to  appeal  again  from  the  decision,  demand 
another  roll  call  on  that  appeal,  and  so  on,  ad  infinitum. 
Had  this  program  been  carried  out,  Rosewater,  to  prevent 
an  indefinite  series  of  appeals  and  roll-calls,  would  have 
been  obliged  to  deny  Governor  Hadley's  right  to  raise 
the  point  of  order,  and  in  the  confusion  which  would 
have  inevitably  followed,  two  conventions  would  have 
been  organized  at  the  same  time  and  place.  The  split 
in  the  Republican  party  would  have  taken  place,  but 
the  progressives  would  not  have  left  the  party  and  this 
difference  we  may  be  sure  would  have  had  a  decided 
effect  on  the  subsequent  history  of  the  country. 

But  the  program  was  changed  at  the  last  moment. 
When  Mr.  Rosewater  called  the  convention  to  order, 
Governor  Hadley  moved  that  the  delegates  whose 
seats  had  been  contested  be  excluded  from  participating 


358  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

in  the  proceedings  until  their  right  to  participate  had 
been  determined  by  the  majority  of  the  delegates  whose 
seats  were  not  contested.  After  debate,  this  motion 
was  ruled  out  of  order  on  the  ground  that  there  was 
nothing  before  the  house  except  the  nominations  for 
temporary  chairman.  But  from  this  decision  no  appeal 
was  taken  by  the  Roosevelt  forces,  and  on  the  subsequent 
election  for  temporary  chairman,  which  was  of  -course 
participated  in  by  the  seventy-two  delegates  whose 
seats  were  contested,  Elihu  Root,  the  candidate  of  the 
Taft  forces,  was  elected. 

From  the  moment  the  convention  was  organized 
by  the  anti-progressive  forces,  everything  in  the  con 
vention  proceeded,  if  not  without  fierce  dispute,  crimi 
nation  and  recrimination,  nevertheless  with  clock-like 
regularity  to  the  inevitable  end. 

A  Credentials  Committee  was  appointed,  consisting 
of  one  member  from  each  state,  elected  by  the  delegates 
from  the  state.  The  delegates  taking  part  included 
those  whose  seats  were  contested,  and  of  course  the  Taft 
forces  thus  obtained  control  of  the  committee. 

An  occurrence  took  place  at  the  first  meeting  of 
this  committee  which  very  nearly  precipitated  an 
immediate  break.  A  motion  was  made  to  adopt  a  set 
of  rules  which  would  have  excluded  the  introduction 
of  any  evidence  on  behalf  of  the  contesting  delegates. 
Hearing  that  these  rules  had  been  adopted,  Roosevelt 
sent  word  requesting  his  adherents  to  withdraw  from 
the  committee  and  all  but  three  did  withdraw.  The 
representative  from  Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Lex  N.  Mitchell, 
however,  remained  and  persuaded  the  committee  to 
adopt  more  reasonable  rules,  after  which  the  other 
Roosevelt  members  returned,  and  the  formal  break 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION     359 

was  postponed  until  the  conclusion  of  the  convention. 
For  more  than  an  hour,  however,  everybody  believed 
that  the  end  had  come. 

The  Credentials  Committee  reported  against  the 
contesting  Roosevelt  delegates.  Governor  Hadley  made 
a  motion  that  the  contesting  delegates  should  not  take 
part  in  the  decision  of  the  contests.  This  motion  was  of 
course  laid  upon  the  table  by  a  majority  which  was 
secured  only  by  permitting  the  delegates  whose  seats 
were  contested  to  vote  on  the  motion.  Then  the  indi 
vidual  contests  were  taken  up.  In  each  case  the  Taft 
forces  held  together  and  laid  on  the  table  the  motion 
to  seat  the  Roosevelt  delegates,  but  in  every  instance 
the  vote  of  the  seventy-two  contested  delegates  was 
necessary  to  secure  the  majority. 

The  closest  and  the  critical  vote  was  that  on  the 
California  contest,  wrhere  the  two  Taft  delegates  from 
San  Francisco  had  been  seated  in  defiance  of  the  primary 
law  of  the  state.  The  vote  stood  542  to  529  in  favor 
of  the  Taft  delegates.  Had  this  vote  gone  the  other 
way,  there  would  unquestionably  have  been  a  general 
break  to  Roosevelt.  After  this  decision,  the  last  hope 
of  the  Roosevelt  forces  that  a  sufficient  number  of  the 
Taft  delegates  would  refuse  to  stand  by  the  decision 
of  the  National  Committee  came  to  an  end. 

An  analysis  of  the  vote  is  interesting.  Nearly  half 
the  Taft  delegates  came  from  states  wThich  could  not 
be  expected  to  give  Republican  votes  in  the  electoral 
college.  Roosevelt  had  408  votes  from  definitely  Repub 
lican  states,  as  compared  with  Taft's  270  votes  from 
similar  states. 

Late  on  Monday  night  of  the  convention,  and  on 
each  night  during  the  convention,  there  was  a  meeting 


360  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

of  the  Roosevelt  delegates.  It  was  at  these  meetings 
that  the  Third  Party  Movement  was  born.  At  the 
meeting  on  Monday  evening,  Governor  Johnson  of 
California,  in  a  masterful  oration,  asked  the  delegates 
to  stand  back  of  Roosevelt,  to  refuse  to  abide  by  the 
results  of  theft  and  to  follow  Roosevelt,  bolt  or  no  bolt. 
The  appeal  was  greeted  with  terrific  applause,  and 
from  that  moment  the  chief  difficulty  that  the  leaders 
had  with  the  majority  of  the  Roosevelt  delegates  was 
to  compel  them  to  remain  in  the  convention  to  carry 
out  the  program  determined  upon.  That  program  was 
to  place  on  the  record  of  the  convention  motion  after 
motion  in  which  the  necessity  for  the  opposition  forces 
to  count  the  seventy-twro  delegates  whose  seats  were 
contested  was  made  manifest  and  then,  when  the  time 
came  for  the  nominations,  to  refuse  to  take  part,  to  vote 
or  to  be  bound  by  the  proceedings. 

This  program  was  carried  out.  On  Saturday,  when 
the  nominations  for  Presidential  candidates  were  reached, 
all  but  107  Roosevelt  men,  acting  under  a  direct  request 
from  Roosevelt,  refused  to  vote.  The  107  who  did  vote 
represented  those  who  favored  Roosevelt  but  who  had 
not  as  yet  made  up  their  minds  to  leave  the  party. 
The  President  was  renominated  by  561  votes,  or  21 
more  than  the  necessary  majority. 

One  always-to-be-remembered  incident  occurred 
during  the  roll-call  for  the  nomination  for  President. 
When  Massachusetts  was  reached,  the  chairman  of 
the  delegation  announced  that  the  state  cast  eighteen 
votes  for  Taft  and  that  eighteen  declined  to  vote.  Imme 
diately  there  was  a  challenge  and  a  call  for  a  poll  of  the 
delegation,  so  the  names  were  called.  The  first  name 
was  that  of  a  delegate  at  large,  a  Mr.  Fosdick.  He 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION    361 

said,  "Present,  but  I  refuse  to  vote."  Everyone  cheered 
and  Mr.  Root  banged  for  order.  When  he  got  it,  he 
came  to  the  front  of  the  platform  and  called  out,  "You 
have  been  sent  here  by  your  state  to  vote.  If  you  refuse 
to  do  your  duty,  your  alternate  will  be  called  upon." 
This  had  not  been  done  in  other  delegations,  but  the 
Massachusetts  delegation  was  peculiar  in  that  the 
alternates,  by  a  freak  of  the  primary  elections,  were 
Taft  men.  The  name  of  Fosdick  was  called  again.  He 
cried  out,  "No  man  on  God's  earth  can  make  me  vote 
in  this  convention."  Whereupon  Root  called  his  alter 
nate.  This  was  done  in  the  other  Massachusetts  cases 
and  two  alternates  thus  cast  their  votes  for  the  President. 
The  howl  of  derision  and  hate  which  greeted  the  announce 
ment  has  never,  I  believe,  been  equalled  in  any  great 
public  gathering  of  representative  Americans.  The 
chairman  announced  that  thereafter  the  alternates 
would  not  be  called  upon.  It  was  the  final  exhibition 
of  the  steam  roller. 

It  has  never  been  clear  to  me  why  this  step  was 
taken.  The  two  votes  were  not  necessary  to  insure 
Taft's  nomination,  while  the  action  came  very  nearly 
costing  the  President  the  votes  of  several  delegates 
committed  to  his  candidacy. 

The  decision  given  by  Victor  Rosewater  that  he 
had  no  power  to  go  back  of  the  temporary  roll  of  delegates 
and  exclude  from  the  temporary  organization  of  the 
convention  delegates  whose  seats  were  contested,  was, 
I  believe,  correct.  The  subsequent  decision  that  the 
contested  delegates,  after  the  temporary  organization 
of  the  convention,  could  vote  on  their  own  cases  and  the 
cases  of  other  contested  delegates,  was,  also,  I  believe, 
legally  correct.  Any  other  rule  might  permit  a  minority 


362  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

to  be  turned  into  a  majority  by  the  simple  process  of 
filing  a  sufficient  number  of  contests  with  the  National 
Committee.  The  real  issue  raised  by  the  action  of  the 
conservatives  at  Chicago  in  1912  was  not  whether  the 
decisions  of  the  presiding  officer  wrere  legally  correct. 
The  issue  was  much  more  fundamental.  In  the  light 
of  the  facts,  no  one  can  seriously  contend  that  the 
National  Committee  had  judicially  determined  the  con 
tests.  Whatever  the  merits  of  those  contests,  the  majority 
of  the  National  Committee  voted  for  their  political 
friends.  The  argument  to  justify  Roosevelt's  opponents 
must  always  be  that  he  had  organized  a  temporary 
majority  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  the  funda 
mental  principles  on  which  the  party  was  founded  and 
always  had  been  maintained;  that  in  effect  he  stood 
for  revolution,  and  that  to  prevent  the  destruction 
of  the  party,  the  minority  were  justified  in  going  to  the 
lengths  they  did  to  preserve  their  legal  control  over 
the  organization. 

Those  who  believe  that  the  conservatives  were 
wrong  in  their  conception  of  what  the  Republican  party 
historically  stood  for  and  in  their  estimate  of  what 
Roosevelt  was  trying  to  do,  may  at  this  time  admit 
that,  believing  as  they  did,  the  conservatives  had  an 
arguable  excuse  for  standing  by  the  determinations 
of  the  National  Committee.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
most  conservative  member  of  the  Republican  party 
should  in  all  fairness  admit  that  Roosevelt  and  his 
adherents  believed,  and  had  much  cause  for  their  belief, 
that  the  decisions  of  the  National  Committee  repre 
sented  a  deliberate  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  minority 
to  deprive  the  progressive  forces  of  a  victory  which 
they  had  fairly  won,  and  that  this  being  their  belief, 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION     363 

they  were  justified  in  withdrawing  and  establishing 
a  new  party. 

As  for  the  convention,  there  will  always  be  one 
scene  that  those  who  witnessed  it  will  never  forget. 
Throughout  the  early  days  of  the  convention  feeling 
ran  high.  The  fear  of  riot  was  not  an  idle  fear.  There 
were  minutes  when  it  seemed  that  only  the  clear-cut 
decisive  manner  and  commanding  personality  of  Root 
prevented  an  outbreak.  When  the  contests  over  the 
disputed  seats  were  taken  up,  the  delegates  were  tired 
and  mad.  In  the  debates  over  the  first  cases,  the  speakers 
on  either  side  were  interrupted  by  angry  denials  of 
their  assertions.  The  first  cases  went,  of  course,  against 
the  Roosevelt  forces.  And  yet,  among  those  forces 
there  was  a  general  feeling  that  a  sufficient  number 
of  the  Taft  men  would  refuse  to  stand  by  the  decision 
to  seat  the  two  Taft  delegates  from  San  Francisco  in 
defiance  of  the  state  primary  law.  Everyone  recognized 
that  if  Roosevelt  could  not  win  in  this  contest,  he  could 
not  win  in  any  of  the  others,  and  that  Taft  would  be 
nominated.  When  the  result  was  announced,  for  an 
instant  the  Roosevelt  delegates  remained  seated  and 
silent  while  their  opponents  cheered,  though  rather 
mechanically.  And  then,  as  one  man,  the  Roosevelt 
followers  arose  and  cheered.  I  can  see  now  the  look 
of  astonishment  on  the  faces  of  their  opponents,  and 
yet  the  cheering  was  perfectly  spontaneous.  The  sense 
of  relief  was  universal.  The  long  strain  was  over.  We 
had  lost.  Roosevelt  would  not  be  nominated  by  the 
Republican  party,  but  we  were  through  with  the  Repub 
lican  party  as  controlled.  We  would  go  out  and  found 
a  new  party  and  make  a  great  fight. 

From   that   moment   the   whole   atmosphere   of   the 


364  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

convention  changed.  All  tension  disappeared.  The 
Roosevelt  supporters  thereafter  refrained  from  demand 
ing  roll-calls  and  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  pro 
ceedings.  They  became  mere  spectators  at  a  show, 
and  frequently  got  a  good  deal  of  amusement  out  of 
the  exhibition.  The  speakers'  stand  was  at  the  end 
of  a  raised  gangway  which  ran  out  from  the  main  plat 
form.  One  eminent  statesman  had  the  misfortune 
of  being  built  on  the  lines  of  a  fat  puddle-duck.  As 
he  waddled  out  on  the  gangplank,  the  illusion  that  he 
had  web  feet  and  would  quack  was  universal.  The 
audience  howled  with  a  delight  which  was  still  further 
increased  by  his  evident  wrath  at  their  mirth.  The 
toot-toots  and  the  choo-choos  in  imitation  of  a  steam 
roller  sounded  everywhere.  One  delegate  jumped  on  a 
chair,  crying  "Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  to  raise  a  point 
of  order."  When,  after  several  minutes,  quiet  was 
restored,  he  said,  "Mr.  Chairman,  my  point  of  order 
is  that  the  steam  roller  is  exceeding  its  speed  limit." 
And  the  chairman,  having  a  sense  of  humor,  declared 
the  point  well  taken. 

When  it  became  "evident  by  the  roll-calls  on  the 
seating  of  the  contested  Taft  delegates  that  the  conser 
vatives  would  retain  control  of  the  national  organi 
zation  of  the  Republican  party,  Orchestra  Hall,  a  large 
hall  on  Michigan  Avenue,  a  few  blocks  north  of  the 
Congress  Hotel,  was  secured  for  a  meeting.  After  the 
nomination  of  President  Taft  was  announced,  a  great 
crowd  began  to  gather  in  front  of  the  hall.  When  the 
doors  were  opened,  all  the  unreserved  seats  were  imme 
diately  filled,  and  shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
Republican  Convention  a  great  majority  of  the  Roose 
velt  delegates  filled  the  reserved  seats. 


THE   FIGHT  FOR  THE   NOMINATION     365 

The  meeting  was  presided  over  by  Governor  John 
son.  It  was  called  as  a  mass  meeting  to  nominate  Roose 
velt  for  the  Presidency.  To  all  intents  and  purposes 
this  program  was  carried  out,  though  the  resolution 
nominating  Roosevelt  was  never  formally  passed.  After 
a  speech  by  Prendergast  of  New  York  City,  I  was  called 
upon,  and  had  only  said  a  few  words  when  Roosevelt 
came  in.  Thereafter  speeches,  resolutions,  and  every 
thing  else  was  forgotten  in  the  desire  to  hear  from  the 
leader.  He  said  that  the  time  had  come  when  not  only 
all  men  who  believed  in  progressive  principles,  but 
all  men  who  believed  in  elementary  maxims  of  public 
and  private  morality  which  must  underlie  every  form 
of  successful  free  government,  should  join  in  our  move 
ment.  He  asked  us  to  go  to  our  several  homes,  to  find 
out  the  sentiment  of  the  people,  and  to  come  together 
again,  to  nominate  for  the  Presidency  a  progressive 
candidate  on  a  progressive  platform.  "If  you  wish  me 
to  make  the  fight,"  he  said,  "I  will  make  it,  even  if 
only  one  state  should  support  me.  The  only  condition 
I  impose  is  that  you  shall  feel  entirely  free,  when  you 
come  together,  to  substitute  any  other  man  in  my  place, 
if  you  deem  it  better  for  the  movement,  and  in  such 
case,  I  will  give  him  my  heartiest  support." 

On  Sunday  morning,  after  the  meeting  in  Orchestra 
Hall,  a  conference  of  progressives  was  held.  It  was 
notable  for  the  very  eloquent  reading  of  the  twenty- 
third  Psalm  by  a  colored  clergyman  present,  for  a  clear- 
cut  address  by  James  R.  Garfield,  and  for  an  earnest 
appeal  from  Governor  Johnson.  In  the  course  of  this 
appeal,  the  Governor  said:  "There  have  been  times 
during  the  strain  and  stress  of  the  past  week  when 
those  of  us  who  have  been  fighting  at  his  side  have 


366  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

expressed  our  indignation  in  language  not  fit  for  publi 
cation.  But  during  all  that  time,  he  has  never  lost  his 
serenity  and  he  has  never  lost  his  fighting  spirit.  He  has 
the  courage  to  go  on  always  fighting  for  the  right.  For 
the  love  of  God,  gentlemen,  can't  we  have  that  type 
of  courage?" 

Every  word  of  this  was  true.  Roosevelt,  through 
the  turmoil  of  those  days  and  nights,  never  lost  control 
of  his  temper  but  once,  and  that  was  only  for  a  few 
moments  when  the  report  reached  him  concerning 
the  rules  adopted  by  the  Credentials  Committee.  He 
never  lost  his  fighting  spirit;  nine-tenths  of  the  time 
he  was  irrespressibly  cheerful.  I  do  not  wish  to  give 
the  impression  that  he  was  not  thoroughly  aroused — 
more  aroused,  perhaps,  than  at  any  other  time  in  his 
life.  All  that  was  best  in  him  and  his  keen  sense  of 
justice  and  fair  play  rose  against  wrhat  we  all  regarded 
as  a  deliberate  theft.  To  lie  quietly  down  and  submit 
was  for  him  a  moral  impossibility.  But  he  never  for  a 
moment  judged  harshly  those  who,  when  the  break 
came,  ceased  to  follow  him. 

One  of  the  finest  things  I  have  ever  witnessed  was 
the  scene  in  the  inside  room  of  his  suite  when  Governor 
Hadley  came  to  bid  him  good-bye.  The  able  and  yet 
dignified  manner  in  which  Hadley  had  led  the  debates 
over  the  contested  seats  before  the  convention,  combined 
with  his  fine,  clear-cut,  self-contained  personality,  had 
made  him  deservedly  popular — so  popular,  indeed,  that 
at  one  time,  for  twenty  minutes,  the  Roosevelt  delegates 
had  cheered  him,  until  a  young  woman  in  the  gallery, 
with  a  picture  of  Roosevelt,  turned  the  tide  of  the  demon 
stration.  From  that  moment  the  great  majority  of  the 
Roosevelt  delegates  were  possessed  with  the  fear  that 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  NOMINATION       367 

the  Taft  forces  would  offer  the  nomination  to  Hadley 
and  that  he  would  accept  it.  When  the  break  came 
it  was  understood  that  the  Governor  would  not  follow 
Roosevelt  out  of  the  Republican  party.  Feeling  ran  high. 
There  was  nothing  but  fierce  anger  at  anyone  who  having 
been  a  leader  now  hesitated. 

And  so,  when  the  Governor  came  to  say  good-bye, 
the  others  present,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  stood 
like  graven  images.  Not  so  Roosevelt.  He  greeted  the 
Governor,  took  him  aside,  talked  with  him  privately, 
and  bade  him  farewell.  There  was  not  a  trace  of  resent 
ment  in  his  manner,  and  I  do  not  think  he  felt  resent 
ment.  When  Hadley  had  gone,  Roosevelt  turned  to 
the  others  and  said,  "He  will  not  be  with  us,  but  we 
must  not  blame  him."  And  so  it  was  with  any  of  his 
other  supporters  who  felt  that  they  could  not  follow 
him  out  of  the  Republican  party.  While  the  majority 
could  not  forgive  these  men  for  what  they  regarded  as 
desertion  at  a  critical  time,  Roosevelt  was  always  able 
to  place  himself  in  the  other  man's  position,  to  realize 
the  political  difficulties  arising  out  of  peculiar  conditions 
in  the  man's  own  state,  or  to  make  allowances  for  the 
influences  of  association  and  temperament. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY 

THE  decision  to  form  an  independent  party  was 
made  by  Roosevelt,  and  by  no  one  else.  From 
many  points  of  view,  it  was  the  most  important 
decision  of  his  life.  There  is  probably  no  other  action  of 
his  which  has  been  the  subject  of  so  much  discussion,  not 
merely  between  friends  and  opponents,  but  among 
those  who  at  various  periods  of  his  career  have  been 
his  closest  associates.  Time  has  served  to  remove  much 
of  the  bitterness  engendered  by  the  fierce  political  cam 
paign  that  followed  and  the  overwhelming  defeat  of 
the  Republican  party,  but  has  not  settled  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  the  wisdom  of  his  action. 

He  did  not  form  the  Progressive  party  to  make 
himself  President.  I  believe  Roosevelt  was  the  only 
man  in  Chicago,  at  least  that  he  was  among  the  very 
few,  who  grasped  the  bearing  of  his  decision.  The  defeat 
of  the  Republican  party  in  the  coming  November  was  a 
certainty,  and  this  defeat,  had  he  retained  his  connection 
with  the  Republican  party,  would  have  insured  his 
nomination  at  the  next  Presidential  election.  All  he 
had  to  do  was  to  accept  his  defeat  in  the  convention, 
tell  his  followers  that  he,  personally,  would  vote  for 
the  Republican  candidate,  and  that  they  must  do  what 
seemed  to  them  best;  and  then  quietly  return  to  Oyster 
Bay,  taking  little  or  no  part  in  the  campaign.  At  the 
time  the  decision  to  form  a  third  party  was  made,  he 
stated  that  if  his  sole  object  was  to  be  President  again, 

(368) 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY      369 

the  course  indicated  was  the  course  which  reason  dictated 
that  he  should  pursue. 

But  while  Roosevelt  wanted  to  be  President,  his 
desire  for  a  third  term  was  not,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
dominant  motive  which  led  him  to  become  a  candidate 
for  the  Republican  nomination.  No  one  can  understand 
and  rightly  judge  his  political  actions  who  does  not 
realize  that  he  was  always  more  interested  in  the  message 
that  he  was  delivering  than  in  his  own  political  fortunes. 
The  main  cause  of  his  decision  is  found  in  the  statement 
which  he  made  to  a  small  group  who  had,  from  the  start 
of  the  contest,  been  closely  associated  with  him:  "If 
we  form  a  third  party  and  go  out  and  fight  for  better 
social  conditions  in  this  country,  we  will  accomplish 
more  in  three  months  than  could  be  accomplished, 
under  ordinary  conditions  in  a  dozen  years." 

In  stating  the  main  cause  which  led  Roosevelt  to 
create  the  Progressive  party,  other  influences  which  had 
their  effect  on  his  actions  should  not  be  wholly  neglected. 
He  was  not  a  man  to  sit  quietly  under  what  he  regarded 
as  an  injustice.  That  he  had  fairly  won  the  nomination, 
he  never  doubted  for  a  moment.  As  I  have  already 
stated,  his  sense  of  justice  made  it  morally  impossible 
for  him  to  submit  to  injustice.  Besides  which  he  was 
mad,  mad  clean  through,  and  did  not  regret  at  all  the 
opportunity  which  the  campaign  gave  him  to  speak 
plainly  the  truth  as  he  saw  it. 

And  there  was  another  reason.  For  years  an  ever- 
increasing  number  of  earnest  men  and  women  had 
striven  to  call  to  the  attention  of  the  great  mass  of 
Americans  certain  evils  in  our  political,  social  and  eco 
nomic  system.  No  one  knew  more  fully  or  sympathized 
more  keenly  with  that  group,  of  whom  men  like  Raymond 

24 


370  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Robbins  and  Gifford  Pinchot,  and  women  like  Jane 
Addams,  are  types.  The  fighter  against  political  graft, 
the  social  worker,  the  man  who,  far  from  being  a  socialist, 
sees  the  danger  of  permitting  the  real  injustices  of  existing 
conditions  to  continue  without  attempted  amelioration — 
these  he  knew  looked  to  him  as  the  one  man  able  to 
inspire  the  country  with  something  of  their  own  spirit 
and  viewpo-int;  and  the  fact  that  they  so  looked  and 
that  he  owed  much  to  them  for  the  inspiration  they  had 
given  him  necessarily  had  its  influence  on  his  decision. 

The  one  thing  which  had  no  influence  was  his  desire 
to  be  President.  The  Progressive  party,  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  was  founded  and  carried  on,  not  to  put 
him  in  the  White  House,  but  to  produce  those  changes 
in  the  machinery  of  government  which  would  give  the 
people  more  direct  control  over  their  state  and  national 
governments,  to  make  it  impossible  for  small  groups 
to  override  the  will  of  the  people,  and  to  bring  forward 
a  definite  constructive  program  of  social  and  economic 
reform.  If  by  fraud  he  was  to  be  prevented  from  breaking 
the  hold  of  the  ultra-conservatives  on  the  Republican 
party,  then  he  would  found  a  party  that  would  be  at 
once  a  federal  and  a  progressive  party. 

The  first  National  Convention  of  the  new  party 
met  in  Chicago  on  Monday,  August  5,  1912.  Roosevelt 
came  again  to  the  city  and  occupied  the  same  personal 
headquarters  that  he  had  occupied  during  the  exciting 
days  of  the  Republican  Convention.  Thus,  after  a  short 
period  of  six  weeks,  the  crowds,  the  excitement,  the  bands 
were  all  back  again;  and  again  great  crowds  filled  the 
Coliseum.  But  here  the  similarity  between  the  two 
conventions  ended.  The  Republican  Convention  was 
an  arena  in  which  two  bitterly  antagonistic  factions 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY   371 

struggled  for  the  mastery.  The  Progressive  Convention 
was  not  a  political  convention  at  all.  At  least  it  was 
not  like  any  other  political  convention  that  had  ever 
been  held.  It  was  a  mass  meeting  of  men — also  of 
women — starting  out  on  a  crusade.  On  the  first  day 
after  the  opening  formalities,  ex-Senator  Albert  W. 
Beveridge,  of  Indiana,  delivered  an  address  in  which 
he  performed  the  difficult  task  of  putting  into  words 
the  ideals  and  aspirations  of  the  new  party.  The  address 
was  a  great  physical,  intellectual  and  oratorical  effort, 
and  at  the  end  he  was  greeted  with  the  great  ovation 
which  he  deserved.  But  the  proof  that  he  had  under 
stood  the  real  spirit  of  his  audience  came  after  the  applause 
had  finally  died  down.  Someone  started  to  sing  the 
"Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic."  With  one  accord 
the  great  audience  joined  in  the  immortal  words  of  the 
opening  stanza: 

He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of 

wrath  are  stored. 
He  has  loosed  the  fateful   lightning  of   His   terrible, 

swift  sword. 
His  truth  is  marching  on. 

From  that  moment,  throughout  the  remaining  two 
sessions  of  the  convention,  it  was  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  a  religious  gathering. 

On  the  second  day,  Tuesday,  Roosevelt  appeared 
before  the  delegates.  He  was  cheered  for  fifty-five 
minutes  before  he  was  permitted  to  proceed  with  his 
address.  His  speech,  which  he  entitled,  "A  Confession 
of  Faith,"  is  perhaps  the  most  complete  expression  of 
his  political  ideals  on  domestic  questions  which  he 
ever  made.  Mr.  Edwin  H.  Abbott,  who  was  present, 
and  kept  a  record,  states  that  he  was  interrupted  by 


372  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

general  hand-clapping  and  cheers-  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  times.  The  applause  was  essen 
tially  the  applause  of  assent.  We  may  doubt  whether 
any  other  public  man  has  ever  addressed  so  large  and 
so  intelligent  an  audience  with  whom  he  was  so  com 
pletely  in  accord. 

The  real  work  of  the  convention  was  done  by  the 
Committee  on  Rules,  the  Committee  on  Credentials 
and  the  Resolutions  or  Platform  Committee.  The 
members  of  all  these  committees  were  in  constant  com 
munication  with  Roosevelt,  and  the  fact  that  their 
reports  were  unanimously  and  enthusiastically  adopted 
by  the  convention  is  proof  of  the  skill  with  which  he 
adjusted  differences.  For  there  were  serious  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  policy.  Perhaps  never  before  had  there 
been  gathered  together  so  large  a  group  of  men  so  few 
of  whom  were  trained  to  give  up  the  lesser  for  the  greater 
aim.  It  was  inevitable  that  this  should  be  so  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  Progressive  movement.  In  spite 
of  the  desire  to  accomplish  a  practical  aim — the  election 
of  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency — and  the  almost 
complete  absence  of  personal  antagonism,  I  can  conceive 
of  no  one  but  Roosevelt  who  could  have  produced  not 
merely  harmony  of  formal  action  but  that  harmony 
whicn  creates  enthusiasm  because  of  the  general  belief 
that  the  right  decisions  have  been  made. 

The  question  which  presented  the  greatest  single 
difficulty  arose  over  the  admission  of  the  colored  delegates 
from  the  South.  In  many  of  the  Southern  states  it  was 
impossible  to  expect  the  formation  of  a  political  party 
which  would  contain  the  best  of  the  whites  if  the  delegates 
from  the  South  were  to  be  colored  persons.  Roosevelt 
believed  with  the  late  Henry  Ward  Beecher  that  all 


TIcE  FOUNDER  OF  A   NEW  PARTY       373 

measures  for  the  negro,  in  order  to  be  permanently 
useful,  must  have  the  cordial  consent  of  the  best  repre 
sentatives  of  the  white  citizens  among  whom  they  live. 
Furthermore,  he  saw  that  the  real  hope  for  the  political 
recognition  of  the  negro  in  the  South  was  to  build  up 
in  opposition  to  the  Democratic  party  another  party 
controlled  by  whites.  He  therefore  thought  that  the 
admission  of  negro  delegates  from  a  state  should  depend 
on  the  consent  of  the  white  Progressives  in  that  state. 
There  was  a  large  element  in  the  convention  who  believed 
that  the  party  should  disregard  what  they  looked  upon 
as  an  unchristian  prejudice  against  the  negro,  even 
though  the  effect  of  such  action,  so  far  from  producing 
political  equality  between  the  races,  would  merely 
end  all  hope  of  the  formation  of  a  party  in  the  South 
which  could  contest  elections  with  the  Democratic 
party  with  any  hope  of  success. 

The  matter  came  to  an  issue  in  several  contests 
before  the  Credentials  Committee,  but  Roosevelt  suc 
ceeded  in  convincing  nearly  every  member  of  the  con 
vention,  white  and  black  alike,  that  his  theory  of  the  way 
to  deal  with  the  vexed  question  was  correct. 

There  were  of  course  differences  innumerable  over 
the  various  planks  in_ the  platform,  many  of  which  I, 
as  cEairman  of  the  Resolutions  Committee,  had  to  get 
Roosevelt  to  iron  out.  On  Monday,  the  first  day  of  the 
convention,  the  Resolutions  Committee  was  appointed. 
It  met  that  evening  and,  as  is  usual,  delegated  to  a 
sub-committee  the  task  of  hearing  proposals  by  delegates 
and  preparing  a  preliminary  draft.  A  tentative  draft 
of  a  platform  had  been  prepared  by  a  committee 
appointed  some  wreek  before,  consisting  of  Chester  A. 
Rowell  of  California,  Gifford  Pinchot  and  myself,  to 


374  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

whom  were  subsequently  added  Charles  H.  McCarthy, 
who  had  prepared  the  LaFollette  Platform  presented 
at  the  Republican  Convention,  and  Dean  George  W. 
Kirch wey  of  the  Columbia  Law  School.  The  sub 
committee  worked  practically  all  of  Monday  night  and 
all  day  Tuesday  going  over,  changing,  adding  to  and 
improving  this  tentative  draft. 

Late  on  Tuesday  afternoon  the  preliminary  committee 
made  its  report  and  the  general  committee  then  began 
a  detailed  examination  and  discussion  of  each  plank, 
which  lasted  throughout  the  night,  and,  indeied,  until 
within  a  few  minutes  before  the  platform  was  reported 
late  Wednesday  afternoon,  to  the  convention.  Should 
or  should  we  not  have  a  plank  favoring  prohibition, 
or  the  single  tax,  or  the  recall  of  judges?  How^ should 
thejlanks_-dealjng^  with  the  Sherman  Anti-lTusLjL/aw, 
the  control^of  big  business^  and  the  plank  on  foreign 
commerce  be  worded?  Many  of  the  questions  raised 
were  in  fact  of  great  practical  importance,  but  often 
the  longest  discussions  and  the  most  feeling  were  over 
matters  which  wrould  have  seemed  less  important  at  a  less 
exciting  time. 

Throughout  Tuesday  night  and  Wednesday  morning 
rumors  would  get  out  of  the  committee  that  a  particular 
plankjhad  been  included^rjeft  out.  When  this  occurred, 
inevitably  some  important  and  over-wrought  leader 
would  promptly  lose  his  head  and  rush  to  Roosevelt 
to  protest.  I  remember  that  when  we  were  going 
over  with  Roosevelt  the  planks  of  the  platform,  two 
delegates,  whom  we  may  call  Mr.  A.  and  Mr.  B.,  who 
were  temporarily  on  less  than  speaking  terms,  differed 
strongly  on  the  wording  of  a  particular  plank— though 
the  differences  did  not  seem  to  the  rest  of  us  very  vital. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY   375 

Roosevelt  had  incarcerated  one  of  the  disputants  in 
one  anteroom  and  the  other  in  another  anteroom, 
passing  back  and  forth  between  them,  trying  to  straighten 
out  the  difference.  When  all  else  failed,  he  ordered  food 
for  Mr.  A.  When  that  statesman  had  been  refreshed, 
all  difficulties  disappeared. 

Again,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  delegates  to 
the  convention  were  marching  around  the  Coliseum 
in  the  usual  demonstration,  and  were  breaking  all  records 
in  both  the  volume  and  duration  of  their  noise,  one 
of  the  leaders  was  threatening  to  desert,  and  was  advising 
Colonel  Roosevelt  not  to  accept  the  nomination  because 
of  irreconcilable  platform  differences,  wiiile  at  the  same 
time  it  seemed  almost  hopeless  to  avoid  a  serious  situa 
tion  in  respect  to  the  vice-presidential  nomination. 
The  very  moment  of  most  vociferous  triumph  outside 
was  the  moment  of  most  critical  doubt  inside.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  no  less  competent  an  observer  than  Chester 
A.  Rowell,  the  California  leader,  that  "only  the  tact- 
fulness,  courage,  and  steady -headedness  of  Colonel 
Roosevelt  prevented  a  smash-up."  Of  course  there  was 
nothing  the  matter  with  the  others  except  hysteria, 
induced  by  overwork  and  loss  of  sleep.  But  Roosevelt, 
who  had  worked  harder  and  slept  less  than  any  of  them, 
kept  also  the  coolest  head. 

In  spite  of  all  the  excitement  among  the  leaders 
and  all  the  arguments  and  differences  of  opinion  among 
the  members  of  the  Resolutions  Committee,  the  final 
result  met  with  universal  approval.^  Roosevelt,  by 
the  exercise  of  his  infinite  patience  and  tact,  and  also 
by  his  intuitive  knowledge  of  when  to  use  the  power 
of  his  personality  to  insist  on  a  definite  decision,  had 
secured  exactly  the  platform  he  desired.'?  - 


376  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Perhaps  to  the  statement  that  everyone  was  satisfied, 
one  temporary  exception  should  be  made.  Just  before 
proceeding  to  the  convention  to  report  the  platform, 
Roosevelt  sent  word  that  he  desired  to  meet  all  the 
members  of  the  committee  personally.  As  we  filed  into 
his  reception  room,  one  enthusiastic  advocate  of  pro 
hibition  said  to  me,  "I  intend  to  carry  my  fight  for  the 
insertion  of  a  plank  on  prohibition  to  the  floor  of  the 
convention."  The  subject  was  charged  with  dynamite, 
and  it  was  important  that  my  friend  be  dissuaded  from 
carrying  out  his  intention.  As  chairman,  I  was  leading 
the  members  of  the  committee.  As  we  came  into  the 
room,  Roosevelt  was  on  the  far  side.  Crossing  quickly, 
I  told  him  the  situation.  How  he  succeeded  in  sepa 
rating  my  friend  from  the  other  members  and  getting 
us  all  out  of  the  room,  while  detaining  him,  I  have  never 
known.  Inside  of  three  minutes  my  friend  followed  us 
out.  He  was  literally  bursting  with  pride.  "Well?" 
I  said  to  him.  "It  is  all  right,"  he  replied,  "I  suggested 
to  Colonel  Roosevelt  that  under  all  the  circumstances, 
I  was  justified  in  not  bringing  the  matter  of  prohibition 
before  the  convention." 

The  platform  contained  planks  advocating  direct 
primaries,  nation-wide  'Presidential  preference  primaries, 
the  direct  election  of  United  States  Senators,  and  the 
short  ballot,  together  with  the  initiative,  referendum 
and  recall  in  the  states.  There  were  also  planks  for 
the  encouragement,  as  well  as  the  control  of  business, 
planks  dealing  with  internal  improvements  and  the 
development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation, 
as  well  as  planks  on  the  tariff,  civil  service  reform,  the 
exclusion  of  federal  office-holders  from  party  conventions 
and  the  publicity  and  limitation  of  campaign  funds. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY   377 

In  international  matters  the  platform  anticipated  an 
issue  of  the  present  day  by  advocating  an  international 
agreement  limiting  the  size  of  naval  forces,  and,  pending 
such  agreement,  the  maintenance  of  a  policy  of  building 
two  battleships  a  year. 

But  the  reason  why  the  platform  of  the  first  Pro 
gressive  Convention  will  always  remain  one  of  the 
notable  documents  of  our  history  is  that  it  contained 
a  concrete  constructive  program  for  the  improvement 
of  social  and  industrial  conditions.  It  specifically 
declared  in  favor  of  workmen's  compensation  laws 
and  laws  providing  for  insurance  against  sickness  and 
unemployment,  the  prohibition  of  child  labor,  minimum 
wage  standards  for  working  women,  minimum  safety 
and  health  standards  for  the  various  occupations,  the 
general  prohibition  of  night  work  for  women,  the  estab 
lishment  of  an  eight-hour  day  for  women  and  young 
persons,  one  day's  rest  in  seven  for  all  wage  workers, 
and  an  eight-hour  day  in  continuous  twenty-four-hour 
industries. 

As  Jane  Addams,  the  head  of  Hull  House,  said 
in  her  address  before  the  convention,  seconding  Roose 
velt's  nomination  for  the  Presidency:  "I  second  the 
nomination  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  because  he  is  one  of 
the  few  men  in  our  public  life  who  has  been  responsive  to 
modern  movement.  Because  of  that,  because  the  program 
will  need  a  leader  of  invincible  courage,  of  open  mind,  of 
democratic  sympathies — one  endowed  with  power  to 
interpret  the  common  man  and  to  identify  himself  with 
the  common  lot,  I  heartily  second  the  nomination." 

On  Wednesday,  the  last  day  of  the  convention, 
Roosevelt  was  nominated  by  acclamation.  WTien  nom 
inations  for  Vice-President  were  reached,  Mr.  Parker 


378  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

of  Louisiana,  and  Judge  Lindsey,  of  Colorado,  who 
had  both  been  spoken  of  for  the  nomination,  respectively 
moved  and  seconded  the  nomination  of  Governor  John 
son  of  California,  who  unquestionably  was  the  choice 
of  the  great  majority  of  the  delegates.  Other  speeches 
were  made  by  Garfield,  Pinchot,  Landis,  Robbins, 
Versey,  Flinn  and  a  colored  delegate,  Clede,  and  the 
nomination  was  made  unanimous.  Roosevelt  and 
Johnson  were  escorted  to  the  platform  over  which  was 
hung  in  large  letters,  Kipling's  verse: 

For  there  is  neither  East  nor  West, 

Border  nor  breed  nor  birth, 
When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face, 

Though  they  come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Behind  were  hung  portraits  of  Washington,  Jefferson 
and  Lincoln — on  one  side  that  of  Jackson,  and  on  the 
other  that  of  Hamilton. 

Roosevelt  and  Johnson  each  addressed  the  con 
vention,  the  main  burden  of  each  speech  being  the 
speaker's  appreciation  of  the  other  man.  After  which 
the  delegates  stood  and,  with  the  great  audience,  sang 
in  chorus,  as  the  trombones  sounded  "Old  Hundred," 
the  words,  "Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow." 

The  campaign  that  followed  was,  on  the  part  of 
the  Progressives,  marked  at  once  by  great  enthusiasm 
and  deep  earnestness.  The  religious  fervor  which  was  a 
marked  characteristic  of  the  convention  spread  to 
Progressives  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  singing 
of  "Onward,  Christian  Soldiers,"  at  every  campaign 
meeting  was  not  an  irreligious  use  of  a  sacred  hymn, 
but  a  natural  expression  of  the  real  spirit  of  the  audience. 
For  most  of  us  who  took  part  in  the  speaking  it  was 
a  novel,  and  for  all  the  speakers  a  wonderfully  inspiring, 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY       379 

experience.  Roosevelt,  in  spite  of  what  he  had  passed 
through  during  the  previous  five  months,  threw  himself 
into  the  campaign  with  unabated  energy.  In  early 
September  he  was  in  New  England,  after  which  he 
made  a  tour  as  far  as  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  extreme 
southwest,  returning  to  New  York  through  the  Southern 
states,  a  four- weeks'  trip  of  over  ten  thousand  miles,  in 
which  he  made  daily  one  or  more  long  speeches  and  many 
shorter  addresses.  Always  he  spoke  on  Progressive 
principles  and  always  to  great  crowds. 

The  nomination  of  Woodrow  Wilson  by  the  Demo 
crats  made  the  task  of  attracting  Democrats  with  pro 
gressive  sympathies  into  the  new  party  not  only  much 
more  difficult  than  it  might  have  been  had  another 
nominee  been  chosen,  but  practically  impossible.  Though 
charges  of  fraud  and  bitter  personal  feeling  had  been 
absent  from  the  Democratic  Convention,  there  had 
been  the  same  struggle  between  the  conservative  and 
radical  elements  of  the  party  as  in  the  Republican  Con 
vention.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Democratic  Convention, 
the  leader  of  what  we  may  call  the  intellectual  radicals 
of  his  party  liad  been  nominated.  As  Governor  of  New 
Jersey  there  was  a  record  of  progressive  laws  to  his 
credit. 

Roosevelt  believed  and  tried  to  show  that  the  Demo 
cratic  party  was  as  much  under  the  control  of  the  "  invis 
ible  government,"  of  which  Beveridge  had  spoken 
in  his  speech  before  the  Progressive  Convention,  as  the 
Republican.  But  the  great  bulk  of  the  Democrats 
with  progressive  tendencies  were  not  convinced,  or  at 
least  had  sufficient  faith  in  Wilson  to  believe  that,  if 
elected  President,  he  could  break  the  "invisible  control" 
of  the  special  interests.  The  contest  for  the  election, 


380  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

therefore,  soon  narrowed  itself  to  a  contest  between 
Woodrow  Wilson,  holding  the  normal  Democratic  vote, 
and  Roosevelt,  who  had  behind  him  a  large  majority 
of  the  Republicans.  He  could  not,  however,  command 
anything  approaching  the  full  Republican  strength. 
Such  a  contest,  in  view  of  the  relative  numerical 
strengths  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
prior  to  the  formation  of  the  third  party,  could 
only  end  in  one  way — the  election  of  the  Democratic 
candidate. 

It  was  planned  to  follow  his  far  Western  trip  by  a 
second  one  of  over  two  weeks  through  the  Middle  West> 
after  which  there  was  to  be  a  short  campaign  in  Penn 
sylvania  and  a  more  extended  trip  through  New  York 
State,  to  begin  with  an  address  in  Madison  Square 
Garden  on  October  26th.  He  was  only  destined  to 
carry  out  a  part  of  this  program.  On  October  7th  he 
left  New  York,  and  on  the  14th  was  in  Milwaukee, 
where  he  was  scheduled  to  speak  at  the  Auditorium. 
He  had  entered  an  automobile  in  front  of  the  Gilpatrick 
Hotel  to  go  to  the  Auditorium,  and  had  turned  to  take 
his  seat,  when  he  was  shot  by  a  man  named  John  Schrank, 
a  resident  of  New  York.  The  ball  struck  an  inch  to  the 
right  and  an  inch  below  the  right  nipple,  fractured  the 
fourth  rib  and  ranged  upward  and  inward  four  inches  in 
the  chest  wall,  but  did  not  puncture  the  lung  cavity. 
Had  it  not  been  deflected  upwards  by  an  eye-glass 
case  and  the  folded  manuscript  of  the  speech  in  his 
pocket,  the  shot  would  undoubtedly  have  proved  fatal. 
Schrank  was  prevented  from  firing  a  second  shot  by  the 
quickness  of  thought  and  action  displayed  by  Mr. 
Elbert  Martin,  one  of  Roosevelt's  secretaries.  Roose 
velt's  first  thought  was  to  save  his  assailant  from  bodily 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY       381 

injury.  When  Schrank  was  brought  before  him,  all  he 
said  was,  "Don't  hurt  the  poor  creature." 

On  arriving  at  the  Auditorium,  though  physicians 
warned  him  that  he  was  seriously,  perhaps  fatally, 
wounded,  he  insisted  on  delivering  his  prepared  address. 
If  he  lacked  any  of  his  usual  vigor,  and  he  certainly 
felt  the  strain  before  the  speech  was  over,  the  audience 
did  not  notice  it.  The  address  concluded,  he  placed 
himself  in  the  hands  of  the  doctors.  After  an  X-ray 
examination,  it  was  decided  that  he  should  be  taken 
to  the  Mercy  Hospital,  in  Chicago.  He  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  night  in  his  car  and  arrived  in  Chicago 
Tuesday  morning,  where  he  was  soon  joined  by  Mrs. 
Roosevelt,  who  had  been  hastily  summoned  from  New 
York. 

It  developed  that  Schrank  was  a  person  whose  weak 
mind  had  been  excited  by  reading  the  violent  partisan 
attacks  of  the  opposition  papers,  especially  the  assertions 
repeatedly  made  that  if  Roosevelt  were  elected  he  would 
try  to  make  himself  a  dictator,  that  his  election  would 
be  the  end  of  the  Republic,  and  that  it  would  necessarily 
mean  a  "bloody  revolution"  within  a  few  years. 

The  tragedy  so  narrowly  averted,  and  his  magnificent 
courage  in  going  on  with  the  address  made  a  great  impres 
sion  on  the  country  and  stilled  for  the  time  being  all 
or  nearly  all  extreme  partisan  attacks.  Governor  Wilson 
instantly  announced  that  in  view  of  his  political  adver 
sary's  disablement,  he  would  withdraw  from  further 
campaigning.  To  this,  however,  Roosevelt  strongly 
objected,  saying  that  "the  welfare  of  any  one  man  in 
this  fight  is  wholly  immaterial,  compared  to  the  great 
and  fundamental  issues  involved."  He  further  pointed 
out  that  there  were  hundreds  of  other  men  preaching 


382  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  doctrines  that  he  had  been  preaching,  and  that  so 
far  as  his  opponents  were  concerned,  "whatever  could 
with  truth  and  propriety  have  been  said  against  me  and 
my  cause  before  I  was  shot  can,  with  equal  truth  and 
equal  propriety,  be  said  against  me  now,  and  it  should 
be  so  said;  and  the  things  that  can  not  be  said  now  are 
merely  the  things  that  ought  not  to  have  been  said  before. 
This  is  not  a  contest  about  any  man;  it  is  a  contest 
concerning  principles." 

After  six  days  in  the  Mercy  Hospital,  he  was  so 
far  improved  that  he  was  allowed  to  take  the  journey 
to  Oyster  Bay,  and  on  October  30th,  though  as  a  matter 
of  fact  very  far  from  being  fully  recovered,  he  addressed 
sixteen  thousand  persons  in  Madison  Square  Garden. 
It  is  almost  superfluous  to  add  that  he  received  an 
ovation  which  in  its  manifestation  of  heartfelt  personal 
affection  and  admiration  has  never  been  equalled.  As 
one  paper,  bitterly  opposed  to  him  politically,  said, 
speaking  of  the  meeting:  "It  had  all  loyalty  to  a  cause 
and  devotion  to  an  individual  rolled  into  one  and  offered 
to  the  man  whom  they  regarded  as  the  personification 
of  that  cause."  His  speech  was  marked  by  calmness, 
poise  and  a  penetrating  note  of  conviction  and  of  duty. 
"I  am  glad  beyond  measure,"  he  said,  "that  I  am  one 
of  the  many  who  in  this  fight  have  stood  ready  to  spend 
and  be  spent,  pledged  to  fight,  while  life  lasts,  the  great 
fight  for  righteousness  and  for  brotherhood  and  for 
the  welfare  of  mankind." 

The  election  took  place  on  November  5th.  Of 
the  15,031,169  votes  cast,  Wilson  received  6,286,214, 
Roosevelt,  4,126,020  and  Taft  3,483,922,  the  remainder 
going  to  other  candidates.  Wilson  had  a  plurality 
over  Roosevelt  of  more  than  2,000,000,  but  his  total 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  A  NEW  PARTY   383 

vote  fell  short  of  the  combined  vote  for  all  other  can 
didates  by  2,458,741  votes,  and  the  combined  vote  for 
Roosevelt  and  Taft  exceeded  Wilson's  vote  by  1,323,728. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  result  in  the  Electoral  College 
and  in  Congress  was  an  overwhelming  triumph  for  the 
Democratic  party.  Roosevelt  carried  Pennsylvania, 
Michigan,  Missouri,  South  Dakota,  and  Washington, 
and  secured  eleven  of  the  thirteen  electoral  votes  from 
California,  a  total  of  eighty-eight  votes  in  all.  Taft 
carried  Vermont  and  Utah,  securing  eight  votes.  Wilson 
secured  the  remaining  435  votes,  the  largest  majority  ever 
given  in  any  Electoral  College  to  any  Presidential  candi 
date.  The  Democratic  party  obtained  control  of  both 
branches  of  Congress. 

The  story  told  by  these  figures  was  plain.  Progressive 
principles  had  triumphed.  A  program  of  national  pro 
gressive  legislation  by  the  new  Congress  was  assured. 
As  Roosevelt  himself  had  foretold,  the  campaign  had 
done  more  towards  bettering  social  conditions  in  three 
months  than  is  often  accomplished  in  a  dozen  years. 
But  the  Progressive  party  had  failed  to  attract  progressive 
members  from  among  the  Democrats.  The  Republican 
party  had  been  split  in  two  and  the  larger  share  had 
gone  to  the  Progressives,  but  the  Democratic  party 
remained  intact.  Therefore,  the  moment  the  returns 
were  analyzed,  it  was  clear  that  unless  Woodrow  Wilson 
failed  to  carry  out  the  progressive  policies  to  which  he 
was  committed,  thereby  driving  progressive  Democrats 
into  the  Progressive  party,  in  a  short  time  either  the 
Republican  or  the  Progressive  party  would  cease  to  exist.  \) 


CHAPTER  XXV 

ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST* 

ON  March  15,  1913,  Roosevelt  came  to  Phil 
adelphia  to  deliver  a  Progressive  party  address, 
As  usual,  when  in  the  city,  he  stayed  with  his 
friend  Dr.  J.  William  White.  Consenting  to  make 
the  address,  he  had  remarked  casually  that  it  would 
give  him  an  opportunity  to  consult  with  Witmer  Stone, 
of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  I 
was  to  preside  at  the  Progressive  meeting,  and  it  was 
my  duty  to  go  to  Dr.  White's  for  the  Colonel,  and  to 
bring  him  to  the  Academy  of  Music. 

Shortly  before  the  hour  fixed  those  in  charge  of  the 
arrangements  at  the  Academy  telephoned  that  every 
seat  was  taken,  and  that  large  crowds  on  the  outside 
were  trying  to  get  in.  Outside  of  Dr.  White's  house  a 
considerable  number  of  people  had  assembled  to  see 
the  Colonel  come  out.  I  was  told  that  he  was  upstairs 
in  the  library,  so  upstairs  I  went.  As  I  entered  the  room 
he  waved  his  hand  and  motioned  to  a  chair,  saying: 
"I  know  you  want  me  to  go  with  you,  but  sit  down  a 
moment;  to  hear  something  about  tree-toads  will  do 
you  good."  And  then,  for  some  ten  or  fifteen  minutes, 
I  listened  to  an  animated  discussion  between  the  Colonel 
and  Dr.  Stone  on  questions  of  animal  coloration. 

I  had  never  seen  him  more  animated  in  the  most 


*I  have  no  scientific  knowledge  of  natural  history  and  have  therefore  asked  Dr. 
Witmer  Stone,  Curator  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  to  write  the 
estimate  of  Roosevelt  as  a  naturalist  which  appears  in  this  chapter. 

W.  I).  L. 

(384) 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST  385 

exciting  political  campaign,  and  soon  the  waiting  audience 
at  the  Academy  and  the  object  of  my  visit  passed  from 
my  mind,  and  the  only  thing  that  really  interested  me 
was  how  that  tree-toad  disappeared.  Suddenly  the 
discussion  abruptly  stopped.  The  Colonel  turned  to 
me  saying,  "Now,  Dean,  I  am  ready,"  and  inside  of  ten 
minutes  he  stood  before  a  great  audience  and  plunged 
into  an  interesting  discussion  of  Progressive  principles. 
Nevertheless,  I  could  not  rid  myself  of  the  impression 
that  the  real  thing  that  interested  him  in  that  visit 
to  Philadelphia  was  his  discussion  with  Dr.  Stone. 
Natural  history  had  for  the  time  being  triumphed  over 
politics. 

It  is  difficult  in  these  days  to  estimate  a  man's  attain 
ments  as  a  "naturalist"  because  of  the  loose  way  in 
which  the  i/erm  is  popularly  used.  Anyone  who  is  inter 
ested  in  natural  history  may  pass  for  a  naturalist,  and 
if  he  be  an  entertaining  speaker  and  possessed  of  some 
attractive  lantern  slides  his  reputation  is  established. 
The  public  seldom  troubles  itself  to  go  further  and  to 
ascertain  what  actual  scientific  work  he  has  done  and 
whether  or  not  it  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  fund  of 
human  knowledge. 

One  of  the  surest  indications  of  the  spirit  of  the  true 
naturalist  in  Theodore  Roosevelt  was,  it  seems  to  me, 
his  full  appreciation  of  this  lack  of  discrimination  on 
the  part  of  the  public  and  the  capital  that  has  been 
made  out  of  it  by  those  unscrupulous  individuals  for 
whom  he  coined  the  apt  sobriquet  of  "nature  fakirs." 
The  faulty  observations  and  false  deductions  of  such 
writers  aroused  his  greatest  indignation,  and  again  and 
again  we  find  him  demanding  care  and  accuracy  in 
observation  as  well  as  in  the  interpretation  of  obser- 

25 


386  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

vations,  even  though  we  lose  thereby  many  of  the  spectac 
ular  features  that  a  too  vivid  imagination  or  a  looseness 
in  regard  to  veracity  may  so  easily  impart. 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  ambition  in  early  life  was  to 
become  a  naturalist  of  the  type  of  Audubon,  Wilson, 
Baird  or  Coues — an  out-door  student  of  birds  and 
mammals;  and  upon  entering  Harvard  he  had  about 
decided  upon  a  scientific  career.  Here,  however,  he 
found  that  in  university  circles  this  side  of  natural 
history  was  looked  upon  with  disfavor  and  actually 
discouraged.  Natural  science  in  the  colleges  had  become 
purely  a  laboratory  study  centered  about  the  microscope, 
and  to  emphasize  the  gulf  that  separated  the  exponents 
of  science  from  the  old-time  "naturalist,"  such  terms 
as  "scientist"  and  "biologist"  were  coming  into  vogue. 
Nowadays  the  pendulum  seems  to  be  swinging  back 
again  and  ere  long,  we  trust,  the  study  of  the  living 
animal  will  take  a  place  in  educational  institutions 
side  by  side  with  the  study  of  its  embryonic  development 
and  the  minute  structure  of  its  organs.  The  attitude 
of  the  scientific  department  at  Harvard  discouraged 
in  young  Roosevelt  any  further  thought  of  science  as  a 
career,  but  his  interest  in  out-door  natural  history 
suffered  no  check.  He  did,  however,  develop  a  prejudice 
against  the  so-called  "closet"  study  of  natural  history 
which  he  maintained  throughout  his  life. 

The  gathering  of  information  on  the  life-history 
of  an  animal  is  just  as  important  as  the  study  of  its 
dead  body,  but  the  pursuit  of  this  sort  of  knowledge 
is  so  intimately  associated  with  the  love  of  the  chase 
and  the  enjoyment  of  out-door  life,  that  it  is  too  often 
overshadowed  by  them  and  lost  sight  of.  There  are 
game  birds  and  game  mammals  which  have  been  hunted 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST          387 

for  a  century  or  more,  yet  their  full  life-histories  are 
still  to  be  recorded.  Hunters  have  written  volumes  upon 
them  but  they  have  treated  of  the  hunting  rather  than 
of  the  game.  It  was  right  here  that  Theodore  Roosevelt 
made  his  greatest  contributions  to  natural  history. 
He  recognized  the  incompleteness  of  the  recorded  life- 
histories  of  our  larger  animals  and  set  about  supplying 
what  was  lacking.  Success  in  this  quest  always  gave 
him  as  keen  satisfaction  as  the  securing  of  the  trophies 
of  the  chase,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  in  planning  his 
hunting  trips  his  thought  was  not  of  getting  the  largest 
amount  of  game  but  of  hunting  some  different  species  of 
animal  or  one  concerning  which  information  was  desired. 
It  has  been  said  of  Colonel  Roosevelt  that  when 
he  hunted  he  knew  what  was  not  known  about  the 
animal  that  he  sought.  That  is  to  say,  he  had  read  all 
that  had  been  written  about  it  and  knew  exactly  what 
w^ere  the  gaps  in  its  life-history.  Thus  equipped  he  passed 
by  such  actions  and  habits  as  were  already  well  known 
and  was  ever  alert  for  opportunities  to  observe  what 
had  hitherto  been  unrecorded.  The  extent  of  his  reading 
in  natural  history  was  extraordinary  and  his  ability 
to  retain  in  memory  the  major  points  of  each  author 
in  such  order  as  to  be  immediately  available  was  still 
more  remarkable.  It  is  noticeable  in  his  writings  that 
he  not  infrequently  fails  to  recall  some  unimportant 
name  or  incident  or  perhaps  omits  some  of  the  initials 
of  a  man's  name — details  of  paramount  importance 
to  the  bibliographic  mind,  but  of  no  real  moment;  and 
one  wonders  if  his  mind  were  not  so  trained  as  to  discrim 
inate  between  important  and  useless  data,  so  that  he 
did  not  lumber  up  the  mental  storehouse  with  an  accu 
mulation  of  the  latter. 


388  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

His  power  of  marshalling  the.  facts  gleaned  in  his 
reading  was  especially  impressed  upon  me  in  listening 
to  him  outline  the  chapter  on  animal  coloration  which 
appeared  later  in  "The  Life-Histories  of  African  Game 
Animals."  He  had  apparently  read  every  work  on  the 
subject,  and  without  notes  and  following  immediately 
upon  an  important  discussion  on  an  entirely  different 
topic,  he  presented  the  subject  in  a  masterly  manner, 
referring  with  absolute  accuracy  now  to  the  views  of 
one  author,  now  to  those  of  another. 

In  order  to  clearly  understand  Colonel  Roosevelt's 
reasons  for  selecting  the  natural  history  of  the  large 
game  animals  as  his  speciality  we  must  quote  from  his 
own  statement:  "Most  big  game  hunters,"  he  says, 
"never  learn  anything  about  the  game  except  how  to 
kill  it;  and  most  naturalists  never  observe  it  at  all. 
Therefore  a  large  amount  of  important  and  rather 
obvious  facts  remain  unobserved  or  inaccurately  observed 
until  the  species  become  extinct.  What  is  most  needed 
is  not  the  ability  to  see  what  very  few  people  can  see, 
but  to  see  what  almost  anyone  can  see,  but  nobody 
takes  the  trouble  to  look  at.  .  .  .  The  facts  I  saw  and 
observed  during  our  five  weeks'  hunt  [for  cougars]  were 
obvious;  they  needed  only  the  simplest  powers  of  obser 
vation  and  of  deduction  from  observation.  But  nobody 
had  hitherto  shown  or  exercised  these  simple  powers." 
This  very  fact,  however,  which  Colonel  Roosevelt  men 
tions  with  no  little  surprise  wrould  seem  to  emphasize 
the  keenness  of  mind  and  perception  and  the  determi 
nation,  preparedness  and  perseverance  of  the  man  who 
finally  did  make  the  observations. 

It  must  be  clear  to  anyone  who  reads  his  accounts 
of  wild  animals  that  he  possessed  the  most  essential 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST          389 

qualifications  of  the  field  naturalist  to  a  marked  degree — 
keenness  of  observation,  clearness  of  mind,  accuracy 
in  deduction  and  absolute  regard  for  truth;  and  though 
he  almost  never  referred  to  himself  as  a  naturalist  he 
nevertheless  early  gained  the  goal  of  his  youthful  ambi 
tion  of  becoming  an  out-door  naturalist  such  as  Audubon, 
Wilson  or  Coues.  In  1907  no  less  an  authority  than 
Dr.  C.  Hart  Merriam  said:  "Theodore  Roosevelt  is 
the  world's  authority  on  the  big  game  mammals  of 
North  America.  His  writings  are  fuller  and  his  obser 
vations  are  more  complete  and  accurate  than  those 
of  any  other  man  who  has  given  the  subject  study/' 

And  recently  Sir  Harry  Johnson,  the  famous  English 
explorer  and  naturalist  has  written:  "Theodore  Roose 
velt  was  not  only  a  great  naturalist  himself,  but  he  set 
the  fashion  in  young  America  for  preserving  and  studying 
fauna  and  flora  until  he  had  gone  far  to  create  a  new 

phase  of  religion He  was  a  field  zoologist  of  the 

new  school  who  studied  wild  life  with  unswerving  accu 
racy,  seeking  only  to  set  forth  the  truth  in  real  natural 
history." 

He  not  only  did  admirable  constructive  work  but 
he  took  pains  to  expose  and  discredit  the  fabulous  tales 
which  had  been  associated  with  the  histories  of  many 
of  our  large  animals,  stories  which,  originating  in  some 
unreliable  narrative,  had  been  copied  from  author  to 
author  until  they  gained  a  firm  foothold  in  the  literature 
of  the  day.  If  his  observations  differed  from  those  of  a 
fellow  student  for  whose  knowledge  and  attainments 
he  had  a  high  regard  it  made  no  difference  so  far  as 
publishing  his  own  experiences  was  concerned,  but  he 
always  courteously  called  attention  to  the  discrepancy 
and  explained  it  on  the  grounds  of  individual  peculiarity 


390  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  habit,  which  in  beast  as  well  a.s  in  man  is  bound  to 
be  met  with.  When  his  attention  was  called  to  an  obvious 
slip  in  one  of  his  statements  he  at  once  admitted  the 
error,  but  in  matters  of  theory,  so  long  as  he  regarded 
the  facts  as  clearly  supporting  his  views,  he  clung  tena 
ciously  to  his  opinions  and  in  practically  every  instance 
he  has  been  supported  by  a  large  majority  of  other 
naturalists. 

In  all  his  studies  it  was  the  habits  of  the  animals 
which  most  appealed  to  him.  He  had  little  or  no  interest 
in  the  separation  of  a  species  into  geographical  varieties 
through  the  careful  study  of  large  series  of  specimens 
in  the  museum,  though  he  was  willing  and  anxious  to 
secure  the  material,  when  necessary,  upon  which  such 
studies  might  be  carried  on  by  those  interested  in  that 
kind  of  work.  He  was,  however,  absolutely  opposed  to 
bringing  these  technical  distinctions  into  semi-popular 
literature  and  giving  them  distinctive  English  names. 
He,  for  instance,  objected  strenuously  to  calling  the 
northern  race  of  the  whiskey -jack  or  Canada  jay,  the 
"Alaskan  jay,"  as  if  it  were  a  distinct  species,  and 
said:  "Give  the  Alaskan  form  a  third  Latin  name, 
by  all  means,  to  distinguish  him  in  wTiting  treatises 
exclusively  for  specialists — if  it  gratifies  them;  but  in 
books  for  general  reading  by  intelligent  men  call  it 
the  whiskey- jack,  mentioning  only  if  necessary  that  the 
allusion  is  to  the  Alaskan  form." 

This  statement,  strictly  interpreted,  is  in  line  with 
his  disregard  for  unessential  matter  in  his  reading, 
and  so  considered  it  has  a  large  element  of  common 
sense  even  though  it  may  shock  the  sensibilities  of  the 
systematic  zoologist.  Underlying  it  and  many  other 
similar  statements,  however,  there  is  a  decided  contempt 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST  391 

for  what  he,  like  many  another  out-door  naturalist, 
regards  as  the  useless  multiplication  of  species.  He 
seemed,  for  instance  to  think  that  because  only  two  of 
our  North  American  wolves  had  received  distinctive 
vernacular  names — the  timber  wolf  and  the  coyote— 
that  all  individuals  were  referable  to  one  or  other  of  these 
two  "species"  and  that  the  several  geographic  forms 
were  easily  disposed  of  between  them.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  however,  there  are  several  perfectly  distinct  species, 
while  the  relationship  of  the  numerous  geographic 
forms  is  by  no  means  an  easy  matter  to  settle.  Such 
facts  are  brought  out  only  by  painstaking  museum 
research  and  had  he  devoted  his  attention  to  this  side 
of  the  study  there  is  little  doubt  but  that  he  would  have 
been  convinced  that  the  problem  is  not  one  to  be  so 
easily  disposed  of.  This  rather  hasty  judgment  of 
problems  that  must  be  considered  from  several  points 
of  view,  and  an  occasional  similar  judgment  of  the 
merits  of  a  writer  from  only  a  part  of  his  writings, 
constituted  the  basis  for  one  of  the  few  criticisms  that 
could  be  made  of  Colonel  Roosevelt's  natural  history 
work. 

Everyone  has  of  course  his  preferences,  and  while 
mammals  and  birds  always  appealed  to  Colonel  Roose 
velt,  and  even  wild  flowers  shared  his  attention,  he  had 
no  interest  whatever  in  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life. 
"I  can  no  more  explain,"  he  writes,  "why  I  do  not  care 
for  that  enormous  brand  of  natural  history  which  deals 
with  the  invertebrates  than  I  can  explain  why  I  do  not 
care  for  brandied  peaches."  And  again,  in  criticising 
a  work  on  African  exploration  because  it  treated  at 
length  the  lesser  forms  of  animal  life  at  the  expense  of 
big  game,  he  says:  "Full  knowledge  of  a  new  breed  of 


392  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rhinoceros  or  a  full  description  of  .the  life-history  and 
characteristics  of  almost  any  kind  of  big  game  is  worth 
more  than  any  quantity  of  matter  about  new  spiders 
and  scorpions.  ...  It  is  only  the  pioneer  hunter  who  can 
tell  us  all  about  the  great  beasts  of  the  chase.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  subordinate  the  greater  to  the  lesser."  He 
goes  on  to  explain  that  the  spiders  and  scorpions  will 
remain  long  after  the  big  game  is  exterminated,  and  may 
be  studied  and  described  by  later  explorers.  While 
entomologists  may  not  agree  with  him,  there  is  here 
again  much  common  sense  in  his  argument.  At  the 
same  time  his  frankly  admitted  preference  for  the  study 
of  big  game  animals  doubtless  had  much  to  do  with 
his  statement,  and  what  specialist  does  not  place  his 
own  hobby  before  any  other  branch  of  research? 

Next  to  game  animals,  Colonel  Roosevelt's  chief 
interest  was  in  birds;  indeed  his  first  natural  history 
studies  were  in  ornithology.  At  the  age  of  fourteen 
he  began  collecting  birds  both  at  his  home  at  Oyster 
Bay  and  in  the  North  Woods,  and  he  took  lessons  in 
taxidermy  from  the  veteran  John  G.  Bell,  who  had 
accompanied  Audubon  on  his  famous  journey  up  the 
Missouri  in  1843.  While  at  Harvard  Roosevelt  became 
a  member  of  the  Nuttall  Ornithological  Club  of  Cam 
bridge,  attended  the  meetings  regularly,  and  took  an 
active  part  in  the  proceedings.  The  records  of  the  club 
for  January  28,  1872,  mention  a  special  discussion  on 
the  merits  of  "the  so-called  English  sparrow"  which 
had  then  but  just  become  established  in  this  country, 
and  hi  this  discussion  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  one  of 
those  who  participated.  Even  before  this,  in  1871, 
he  had  published  a  little  four-page  pamphlet  in  con 
junction  with  Henry  D.  Minot,  another  member  of  the 


I'ho.o  by  Underwood  A   Underwood,  N.   Y. 

HOLDING  HIS  YOUNGEST  GRANDCHILD 

The  family  life  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  model  for  the  American  people. 
In  this  family  group,  the  last  taken  before  his  death,  he  is  holding  his  youngest 
grandchild.  In  the  foreground  is  the  service  flag  showing  the  war  record  of  three 
brave  sons.  This  photograph  was  taken  before  the  youngest  son  entered  the 
service.  Quentin's  golden  star  has  been  added  since. 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST          393 

Nuttall  Club  of  about  his  own  age,  on  the  "Summer 
Birds  of  the  Adirondacks,"  which  is  referred  to  in  a  con 
temporary  review  as  "a  very  acceptable  list — the  first 
known  to  us  of  the  summer  birds  of  this  little  explored 
region."  The  next  year  appeared  a  similar  publication: 
"Notes  on  Some  of  the  Birds  of  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island." 

Later  on  such  time  as  he  was  able  to  devote  to  natural 
history  was  so  taken  up  with  his  studies  of  the  big  game 
animals  that  he  made  but  few  contributions  to  ornith 
ology.  His  interest  in  birds  still  remained  keen,  however, 
and  in  a  magazine  article  entitled,  "Small  Country 
Neighbors,"  he  gives  us  a  delightful  account  of  the 
familiar  bird-life  of  Long  Island,  about  the  White  House 
at  Washington  and  at  Pine  Knot,  a  small  place  that 
he  had  in  Albemarle  County,  Virginia.  In  this  sketch 
there  are  moreover  several  notes  and  observations  of 
no  little  importance.  His  early  publications  and  the 
broad  general  knowledge  of  birds  that  is  evidenced  by 
incidental  mention  in  various  of  his  later  writings  show 
conclusively  that  he  could  easily  have  taken  a  prominent 
place  among  the  out-door  ornithologists  of  America, 
had  he  chosen  to  make  bird  study  a  matter  of  major 
interest;  but  he  felt  that  he  should  devote  himself 
to  a  subject  that  was  not  only  not  so  adequately  supplied 
with  competent  students,  but  which  appealed  even 
more  strongly  to  him,  and  in  which,  therefore,  he  could 
obtain  greater  results. 

That  his  interest  in  birds  continued  to  be  active 
and  his  knowledge  of  them  kept  pace  with  the  literature, 
is  shown  by  a  letter,  written  the  day  before  he  died,  to 
Captain  William  Beebe,  in  regard  to  the  classification 
adopted  in  the  latter's  "Monograph  of  the  Pheasants," 
a  book  of  exactly  the  character  that  Colonel  Roosevelt 


394  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

most  admired  in  natural  history  publications,  and  the 
first  volume  of  which  he  was  engaged  in  reviewing. 
Incidentally  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  had  read  and 
digested  the  entire  volume  of  some  250,000  words  in 
the  ten  days  preceding  his  death. 

Considering  Colonel  Roosevelt's  contributions  to 
natural  science  more  in  detail  we  have  first  his  life  his 
tories  of  the  larger  game  animals  of  America.  His  earlier 
writings  on  this  subject,  contained  in  the  volumes 
entitled:  "Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman"  (1883), 
"Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting  Trail"  (1888),  and  "The 
Wilderness  Hunter"  (1893),  partake  more  of  the  nature 
of  hunting  narratives,  although  they  contain  many 
original  observations.  In  commenting  upon  them  in 
later  years  the  author  says:  "I  vaguely  supposed  that 
the  obvious  facts  [on  the  habits  of  the  animals  were 
known  and  let  most  of  my  opportunities  pass  by."  In 
his  later  writings  he  pays  increasing  attention  to  the 
life-histories  of  the  animals,  often  gleaning  the  important 
facts  from  his  earlier  experiences  and  incorporating 
them  with  new  material  so  that  they  form  the  best 
accounts  of  such  species  as  the  white-tailed  deer,  mule 
deer,  wapiti,  prong-horned  antelope,  wolf,  etc.,  that 
have  been  written. 

These  sketches  are  contained  in  "The  Deer  Family," 
a  volume  of  the  "American  Sportsman's  Library" 
written  by  Colonel  Roosevelt,  T.  S.  VanDyke,  D.  G. 
Elliot  and  A.  J.  Stone;  and  in  the  volumes  of  the  Boone 
and  Crocket  Club.  Later  still  he  made  special  trips  to 
Colorado  for  bear  and  cougars  and  to  the  cane-brakes 
of  the  Gulf  states  for  a  little-known  species  of  bear 
found  only  in  that  region.  The  results  of  these  trips 
and  others  appeared  first  as  magazine  articles,  while 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST  395 

most  of  them  were  afterward  collected  together  in  the 
volumes  entitled,  "Outdoor  Pastimes  of  an  American 
Hunter"  (1908)  and  "A  Booklover's  Holidays  in  the 
Open"  (1916). 

The  account  of  the  cougar  is  especially  noteworthy, 
for,  as  the  author  says:  "No  American  beast  has  been 
the  subject  of  so  much  loose  writing  or  of  such  wild 
fables."  Colonel  Roosevelt  took  the  greatest  pains  to 
secure  all  possible  information  about  the  animal  at 
first  hand  and  from  reliable  observers,  and  he  wreighs 
this  against  the  various  accounts  that  had  been  previously 
published,  pointing  out  those  which  are  reliable  and 
exposing  the  improbable  and  impossible  in  others. 
In  addition,  measurements  and  weights  were  taken  of 
every  specimen,  and  the  entire  series  of  skulls  was  pre 
served  and  presented  to  the  IT.  S.  National  Museum. 
D.  C.  Hart  Merriam  in  commenting  upon  these 
specimens  says:  :<Your  series  is  incomparably  the 
largest,  most  complete  and  most  valuable  ever  brought 
together  from  any  single  locality,  and  will  be  of  inesti 
mable  value  in  determining  the  amount  of  individual 
variation." 

During  the  last  year  of  his  Presidential  term  Colonel 
Roosevelt  began  to  plan  for  his  trip  to  East  Africa,  a 
trip  which  naturally  received  wide  publicity  and  which 
to  many  persons  who  knew  him  only  in  public  office, 
was  the  first  intimation  of  his  interest  in  natural  history. 
Many  indeed  refused  to  recognize  any  such  interest, 
interpreting  the  whole  expedition  as  a  mere  head-hunt 
ing  trip  to  this  wild  game  paradise.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  every  effort  was  made  to  yield  the  greatest  benefit 
to  science.  A  corps  of  scientific  men  representing  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  accompanied  the  party  and 


396  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

everyone  was  well  read  upon  the  zoology  of  the  region, 
so  that,  as  in  Colonel  Roosevelt's  early  hunting  trips, 
they  "knew  what  was  not  known"  of  the  animals  they 
were  to  hunt.  Collections  of  the  greatest  value  to  science 
were  secured  by  the  expedition,  all  of  which,  with  the 
exception  of  about  a  dozen  trophies  and  a  fewr  specimens 
presented  to  other  museums,  are  now  preserved  in  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington. 

Great  additions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  African 
fauna  and  the  problems  of  the  distribution  of  life  have 
resulted  from  a  study  of  this  material  and  from  the 
recorded  observations  of  the  members  of  the  party, 
while  a  host  of  hitherto  undescribed  species  was  dis 
covered.  Of  course  the  other  members  of  the  party 
share  with  Colonel  Roosevelt  the  credit  for  the  success 
of  the  expedition,  but  a  large  part  of  it  was  due  to  his 
well  conceived  plan,  his  enthusiasm  in  carrying  it  out 
and  his  personal  activity  in  the  field  in  collecting  both 
data  and  specimens.  Owing  to  the  prominence  of  the 
leader  of  the  expedition  the  attention  of  many  people 
was  directed  to  the  trip  who  had  never  before  heard 
of  a  scientific  exploring  expedition  or  had  the  slightest 
conception  of  the  need  of  specimens  for  the  advancement 
of  scientific  knowledge.  This  led  to  some  criticism  from 
wholly  unqualified  sources,  as  to  the  folly  of  such  an 
undertaking  and  the  wantonness  of  killing  wild  animals, 
which  was  as  unjust  as  it  was  deplorable.  Many  men 
who  were  unknown  to  the  public  at  large  had,  it  is  true, 
gone  to  Africa  solely  for  the  killing  of  game  for  trophies 
without  benefitting  science  in  the  least,  and  these  had 
escaped  all  criticism,  while  this  wholly  justifiable  expedi 
tion  for  scientific  research  and  the  advancement  of 
knowledge  was  held  up  to  censure. 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST          397 

As  a  matter  of  fact  no  hunter  or  naturalist  had  a 
greater  regard  for  the  preservation  of  wild  life  than 
Colonel  Roosevelt — indeed,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  present 
wide  use  of  the  word  "conservation"  in  this  connection 
is  due  to  him.  He  was  likewise  fully  aware  of  the  need 
of  specimens  for  scientific  research  and  also  of  the  fact 
that  the  collecting  of  specimens  for  such  a  purpose 
never  appreciably  affected  the  abundance  of  any  animal. 
To  use  his  own  words:  "There  should  be  no  collecting 
excepting  for  an  adequate  and  public  purpose,  and  of 
species  on  the  verge  of  extinction  there  should  be  no 
collecting  at  all;  and  purposeless  slaughter  committed 
under  the  pretense  of  'collecting'  should  be  rigorously 
punished.  But,  if  these  conditions  be  fulfilled,  it  is  as 
necessary  to  collect  animals  for  museum  specimens 
as  to  kill  sheep  and  chickens  for  food."  Again,  speaking 
of  the  white  rhinoceros,  he  says:  'Too  little  is  known 
of  these  northern  square-mouthed  rhino  for  us  to  be 
sure  that  they  are  not  lingering  slowly  toward  extinction ; 
and  lest  this  should  be  the  case,  we  were  not  willing  to 
kill  any  merely  for  trophies;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  deemed  it  really  important  to  get  good  groups  for 
the  National  Museum  in  Washington  and  the  American 
Museum  in  New  York." 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  stated  that  when 
President,  Colonel  Roosevelt  established  our  first 
National  Bird  Preserve,  on  Pelican  Island,  Florida, 
where  the  brown  pelicans  have  ever  since  been  able 
to  breed  absolutely  unmolested;  and  before  he  left 
the  executive  office  he  had  established  no  less  than 
fifty-one  of  these  reservations  mainly  on  small  islands 
which  served  as  breeding  grounds  for  various  species 
of  water  birds,  species  which  have  thus  been  rescued 


398  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

from  persecution  and  whose  extinction  would  other 
wise  have  ensued  in  the  course  of  time. 

The  literary  results  of  the  African  expedition  were 
two;  first,  the  narrative:  "African  Game  Trails," 
which  is  full  of  observations  on  the  natural  history 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  the  details  of  the  hunting 
and  the  experiences  of  the  party;  second:  "Life  His 
tories  of  African  Game  Animals,"  to  which  Colonel 
Roosevelt  contributed  the  life-histories,  and  Edmund 
Heller,  one  of  the  naturalists  who  accompanied  him, 
the  technical  descriptions,  etc.,  although  the  work  of 
each  was  revised  by  the  other  so  that  the  result  is  a 
joint  product.  In  this  work  Colonel  Roosevelt  is  at 
his  best  as  an  out-door  naturalist  and  the  accounts 
are  probably  the  best  that  have  ever  been  written  of 
the  larger  mammals  of  Africa.  It  is  today  the  standard 
work  on  the  subject. 

In  1913  Colonel  Roosevelt  headed  another  expedition, 
in  scope  exactly  like  the  African  one,  but  this  time  to 
Brazil,  while  the  naturalists  who  accompanied  him 
represented  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
of  New  York.  This  trip,  ending  in  the  geographical 
exploration  which  involved  the  voyage  down  the  "River 
of  Doubt,"  now  the  Rio  Teodoro,  was  as  productive 
as  the  other  in  the  acquisition  of  valuable  collections 
which  have  served  as  the  basis  of  important  contributions 
to  faunal  zoology.  As  the  fauna  of  South  America  is 
notably  poor  in  the  larger  mammalia,  however,  there 
was  less  opportunity  for  Colonel  Roosevelt  to  contribute 
to  the  literature  of  the  group  which  most  interested 
him.  His  observations  are  all  included  in  the  volume, 
"Through  the  Brazilian  Wilderness,"  which,  though 
dealing  mainly  with  the  itinerary  of  the  expedition, 


ROOSEVELT  THE  NATURALIST          399 

contains  important  contributions  to  the  life  histories 
of  the  jaguar,  tapir,  peccary,  etc.,  and  abundant  comment 
on  the  bird-life  for  which  Brazil  is  famous. 

Among  the  more  general  natural  history  problems, 
the  theory  of  protective  coloration  was  one  that  early 
attracted  Colonel  Roosevelt's  attention;  indeed  he 
tells  us  that  as  early  as  1872,  when,  as  a  college  student, 
he  accompanied  his  parents  to  Egypt,  he  made  some 
observations  along  this  line,  and  from  that  time  on  he 
was  always  alert  for  any  incident  that  would  throw 
additional  light  on  the  subject.  The  main  point  at  issue 
was :  To  what  extent  does  the  coloration  of  an  animal,  by 
resembling  the  background  against  which  it  is  seen, 
render  it  inconspicuous  and  thereby  protect  it  from  its 
enemies?  There  are  a  number  of  quite  obvious  cases 
both  among  birds  and  mammals,  and  especially  among 
insects  and  reptiles;  but  there  are  also  a  host  of  cases 
in  which  coloration  seems  to  offer  no  protection  what 
ever.  Nevertheless  certain  writers  have  claimed  that 
all  forms  of  animals  are  concealingly  colored  and  that 
this  underlying  principle  is  the  explanation  of  the  devel 
opment  of  color  in  the  animal  kingdom. 

This  view  Colonel  Roosevelt  strenuously  opposed,  and 
from  his  wide  and  varied  experiences,  and  with  his  mind 
ever  keen  for  observations  bearing  on  the  subject,  he  was 
peculiarly  well  fitted  for  discussing  it.  His  two  leading 
contributions  to  the  problem  are  a  lengthy  paper  in  the 
"Bulletin  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History" 
on  "Revealing  and  Concealing  Coloration  in  Birds  and 
Mammals;"  and  a  chapter  in  "Life  Histories  of  African 
Game  Animals,"  entitled  "Concealing  and  Revealing 
Coloration  and  their  Relation  to  Natural  Selection." 
These  are  among  the  most  important  contributions  to 


400  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  subject  and  embody  Colonel  Roosevelt's  final  views. 
Anyone,  however,  who  reads  his  writings  on  natural 
history  will  find  the  subject  cropping  out  at  frequent 
intervals  in  almost  every  volume,  so  strongly  did  it 
appeal  to  him. 

This  brief  summary  covers  Colonel  Roosevelt's  main 
contributions  to  natural  science  but,  greater  than  all 
of  them,  perhaps,  should  be  rated  his  influence  in 
developing  the  out-door  natural  history  that  he  loved, 
in  placing  it  on  a  higher  plane  and  in  preaching  the 
doctrine  of  absolute  accuracy.  This  will  exert  an  influ 
ence  for  many  a  year  to  come.  When  we  read  his  natural 
history  writings  and  realize  the  extent  of  his  knowledge 
and  the  possibilities  of  the  man  in  this  field,  one  who 
knew  nothing  of  his  life  might  wonder  that  he  did  not 
publish  more.  But  when  we  know  what  a  many-sided 
man  he  was,  how  varied  were  his  activities  and  how 
tremendous  his  responsibilities  we  marvel  that  he  accom 
plished  so  much.  Those  who  are  competent  to  judge, 
in  reviewing  his  life-work,  will  realize  that  it  was  only 
the  eminence  of  Roosevelt  the  statesman  and  the  constant 
call  to  public  service  that  obscured  the  reputation  and 
checked  the  further  development  of  Roosevelt  the 
naturalist. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT 

IN  the  winter  of  1913  to  1914  Roosevelt  took  his 
trip  through  the  heart  of  South  America — the 
last  of  his  adventures  into  the  wilderness.  The 
expedition  had  been  originally  suggested  to  him  while 
he  was  still  in  the  White  House  by  Father  Zahm,  a 
Catholic  priest  with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted. 
The  African  trip  had  prevented  him  from  carrying 
out  Father  Zahm's  suggestion  immediately,  but  in  1913 
the  opportunity  at  last  presented  itself. 

He  was  invited  to  address  certain  learned  bodies 
in  Argentina  and  Brazil  and  decided  not  to  come  home 
without  first  exploring  the  remote  depths  of  the  Bra 
zilian  wilderness.  The  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  in  New  York  was  glad  to  send  two  naturalists, 
George  K.  Cherrie  and  Leo  E.  Miller,  to  accompany 
the  expedition.  Father  Zahm  was  also  to  go,  together 
with  Kermit  Roosevelt,  Anthony  Fiala,  a  former  Arctic 
explorer,  and  Jacob  Sigg,  who  was  to  act  as  the  per 
sonal  attendant  of  Father  Zahm. 

The  object  of  the  expedition  was  to  secure  animal 
and  plant  specimens  from  the  central  plateau  of  Brazil, 
which  lies  between  the  headwaters  of  the  Amazon  and 
Paraguay  rivers.  The  explorers  proposed  originally  to 
go  up  the  Paraguay  as  far  as  possible,  and  from  there 
to  cross  to  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  and 
so  to  come  down  again  to  civilization. 

But  when  the  Colonel  reached  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the 

26  (401) 


402  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Brazilian  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Mr.  Lauro  Miiller, 
suggested  a  more  serious  enterprise.  Through  the  great 
wilderness  of  western  Brazil,  known  as  the  Matto  Grosso, 
there  flowed  a  river  whose  course  and  destination  geog 
raphers  had  never  traced,  and  which  they  called  the 
Rio  da  Duvida,  the  River  of  Doubt.  Miiller  suggested 
that  Roosevelt  should  combine  with  Colonel  Rondon, 
a  famous  Brazilian  explorer,  and  that  they  should  follow 
together  the  course  of  this  stream,  making  natural 
history  and  geography  the  joint  objects  of  their  expedi 
tion.  To  this  proposal  Roosevelt  eagerly  assented. 

After  his  speaking  engagements  had  been  fulfilled, 
he  started,  on  December  9,  1913,  up  the  Paraguay  River 
from  the  little  city  of  Asuncion,  traveling  on  a  gunboat- 
yacht  which  the  President  of  Paraguay  had  courteously 
lent.  For  three  days  the  boat  steamed  northward,  cross 
ing  the  tropic  of  Capricorn  and  passing  on  the  east 
bank  a  fairly  well  settled  country  with  occasional  fruit 
orchards.  On  the  west  bank  lay  the  swampy  Chaco 
country  which  was  as  yet  practically  untouched  by 
civilization. 

Often  the  boat  stopped  to  take  on  provisions,  and 
fish  were  caught.  The  most  frequent  kind  of  these 
was  the  piranha — a  fish  of  terrible  ferocity.  They  are 
comparatively  small,  not  more  than  a  foot  or  so  in 
length,  but  are  none  the  less  formidable.  Where  they 
are  numerous  men  and  animals  cannot  safely  enter 
the  water,  or  even  touch  a  part  of  their  bodies  to  the 
surface  without  the  risk  of  instant  attack.  If  one  fish 
attacks  and  draws  blood,  all  of  them  are  immediately 
excited  to  madness.  A  wounded  man  or  animal  in  the 
water  will  attract  them  in  large  numbers  and  will  inevi 
tably  be  eaten  alive  unless  he  can  escape  within  the  first 


THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT  403 

few  seconds.  Fortunately  these  piranhas  are  not  dan 
gerous  in  all  places,  and  for  that  reason  are  not  so  much 
to  be  dreaded  as  are  the  man-eating  crocodiles  of  the  Nile. 

At  Concepcion  the  boat  was  moored  and  the  party 
walked  through  the  town,  which  is  inhabited  by  Para 
guayan  Christians  who  are  totally  different  from  the 
wild  savages  of  the  Chaco.  The  colonel  of  the  garrison 
had  prepared  a  reception  for  Roosevelt,  and  at  the 
City  Hall  he  addressed  a  friendly  audience  on  the  polit 
ical  ideas  which  were  suggested  to  him  by  this  visit 
to  a  country  plagued  by  the  revolutionary  habit. 

On  they  went  from  Concepcion,  up  the  Paraguay, 
passing  a  good  many  other  large  boats  and  arriving 
at  last  at  the  Brazilian  line.  Here  Colonel  Rondon 
and  his  associates  met  them.  Rondon  had  spent  twenty- 
four  years  in  exploring  the  western  highlands  of  Brazil, 
and  knew  them  more  thoroughly  than  any  man  living. 
He  described  the  difficulties  which  they  were  to  face — 
the  danger  from  piranhas,  pumas,  snakes  and  other 
animals,  but  especially  from  venomous  insects,  and 
from  sickness  and  accidents  due  to  hard  traveling. 

In  company  with  Colonel  Rondon 's  party  they  went 
up  the  stream,  traveling  in  two  boats,  and  on  December 
15th  reached  the  town  of  Corumba.  Here  Cherrie  and 
Miiller,  who  had  already  collected  some  eight  hundred 
specimens,  were  waiting  to  meet  them.  Two  days  later 
they  started  up  the  Taquary  River — a  tributary  of  the 
Paraguay — to  visit  the  home  of  a  hospitable  ranchman. 

As  they  went  slowly  up  the  shallow  river  they  saw 
many  water-birds  and  quantities  of  caymans,  which 
are  not  unlike  crocodiles,  and  late  one  afternoon  they 
spied  a  giant  ant-eater  on  the  grass-clad  bank.  Pushing 
off  in  a  row-boat  they  landed  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 


404  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

from  him  and  advanced  toward  him  through  the  forest, 
taking  Kermit's  two  dogs  with  them.  The  dogs  leaped 
upon  the  ant-eater,  who  tried  to  defend  himself  by 
ripping  blows  with  his  great  clawed  feet;  but  he  was 
soon  overcome  and  carried  back  to  the  boat  to  be  shipped 
in  due  course  to  the  Museum  in  New  York. 

After  some  miles  of  this  travel  they  left  the  river 
and  mounted  their  horses  for  a  ride  to  the  ranch.  The 
way  led  first  through  a  marsh  whose  vast  drying  pools 
were  filled  with  dead  and  dying  fish.  Great  numbers 
of  jabiru  storks,  herons  and  black  carrion  vultures  had 
gathered  for  the  feast,  and  small  fish-eating  alligators 
were  also  abundant.  They  left  the  marsh  and  rode 
for  miles  through  the  open  palm  forest  in  which  parrots, 
macaws,  and  parakeets  flashed  to  and  fro  in  their  gaudy 
colors.  South  America  is  a  bird  paradise,  but  does  not 
compare  with  Africa  in  the  size  and  variety  of  its  mam 
mals.  Many  thousand  years  ago,  in  a  period  which 
geologists  call  recent,  there  were  on  this  continent  sabre- 
tooth  tigers,  mastodons,  giant  ground-sloths  and  many 
other  huge  creatures,  but  by  some  strange  catastrophe 
these  have  all  disappeared  long  since. 

Senhor  de  Barros'  ranch  lay  in  the  middle  of  a  great 
swamp  country.  He  was  a  true  lord  of  the  soil,  with 
30,000  head  of  cattle,  besides  horses,  pigs,  sheep  and 
goats.  From  his  ranch  they  hunted  the  spotted  jaguars, 
shooting  them  from  the  trees  in  which  the  dogs  drove 
them  to  take  refuge.  Here  Roosevelt  saw  for  the  first 
time  a  nine-banded  armadillo  in  its  native  state.  He 
had  always  supposed  that  the  movements  of  an  arma 
dillo  were  necessarily  like  those  of  a  turtle,  and  was 
correspondingly  surprised  when  he  saw  one,  pursued 
by  the  dogs,  make  off  with  the  speed  of  a  rabbit.  The 


THE   RIVER  OF  DOUBT  405 

dogs  followed  it  full  tilt,  when  it  suddenly  turned,  and 
with  its  armored  body  clove  a  path  for  itself  through 
the  pack  and  disappeared  like  an  animated  cannon-ball 
into  the  safety  of  a  thorny  covert. 

After  several  days'  enjoyment  of  the  hospitality 
of  the  ranch  they  went  back  to  Corumba  on  Christmas 
Eve  and  there  stocked  their  little  boat  for  a  trip  up 
another  tributary  of  the  Paraguay — the  Cuyuba.  On 
board  they  piled  their  food,  ammunition,  specimens 
and  equipment  and  left  little  room  for  themselves. 
Three  days  after  Christmas  they  reached  another  great 
ranch  belonging  to  Senhor  Marques,  who  had  come 
several  hundred  miles  down  the  Cuyuba  to  greet  his 
guests.  From  this  ranch  they  hunted  peccaries,  fierce 
little  wild  pigs  which  travel  in  herds  and  are  mischievous 
if  disturbed.  There  were  quantities  of  birds  here— 
toucans,  herons,  tiger-bitterns  and  many  other  species 
quite  unlike  the  birds  of  any  other  continent. 

Their  visit  over,  they  went  down  again  to  the  Para 
guay,  and  turning  their  faces  up  that  river  arrived,  on 
January  5th,  at  Sao  Luis  de  Caceres,  the  last  town  which 
they  were  to  see  until  they  should  reach  the  Amazon. 
Here  Sigg  delighted  some  of  the  inhabitants  by  giving 
them  a  ride  in  a  dugout  driven  by  the  Evinrude  motor. 

At  Caceres  the  party  left  the  Paraguay  River  and 
ascended  a  stream  whose  Indian  name  means  the  River 
of  Tapirs;  sixty  or  seventy  miles  up  this  river  they 
pitched  their  first  camp.  The  piranhas  were  dangerous 
here  and  two  of  the  dogs  had  the  tips  of  their  tails  bitten 
off  as  they  swram.  On  the  morning  of  January  9th  a 
tapir  hunt  was  organized,  the  hunters  taking  the  dogs 
with  them  in  canoes,  for  the  tapir  lives  in  marshy  country 
and  frequently  takes  to  the  water  when  hunted.  After 


406  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

a  long  search  a  tapir  was  descried,  swimming  rapidly 
down  stream  with  only  his  head  above  water.  One 
of  the  dugouts  pursued  him  and  he  suddenly  dived, 
leaving  no  trace,  and  as  suddenly  reappeared  climbing 
up  the  bank.  Roosevelt  fired,  but  the  tapir,  although 
wounded,  galloped  off  through  the  forest  and  took  to 
the  water  again  farther  up  stream.  Again  the  hunters 
came  up  with  him,  and  again  he  dived,  passed  completely 
under  Roosevelt's  canoe  and  came  up  on  the  other  side; 
there  the  Colonel  killed  him  with  a  well-directed  shot. 

On  they  went  up  the  River  of  Tapirs,  the  current 
rapidly  growing  swifter,  and  on  January  .16th  reached 
Tapirapoan,  the  headquarters  of  the  Telegraphic  Com 
mission.  Here  they  waited  for  several  days  to  gather 
the  pack  animals  and  materials  for  the  overland  trip 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  River  of  Doubt.  All  the  speci 
mens  and  unnecessary  baggage  were  sent  back  to  New 
York  down  the  river,  and  at  last,  on  January  21st,  they 
started  across  country. 

Their  route  lay  northward  across  the  Plan  Alto — a 
vast  treeless  plain.  The  men  rode  mules  and  the  equip 
ment  was  carried  by  a  caravan  of  seventy  oxen,  some 
of  whom  bucked  furiously  and  often  scattered  their 
burdens  far  and  wide.  Soon  they  crossed  the  divide 
between  the  basins  of  the  Paraguay  and  of  the  Amazon. 
The  real  hardships  of  the  trip  now  began.  Heavy  rains 
were  frequent  and  the  slippery  soil  afforded  poor  foot 
hold  for  the  mules.  Feed  was  scarce  and  poor  so  that 
the  strength  of  the  animals  gradually  decreased.  Pium 
flies  were  so  numerous  and  vindictive  that  the  men 
had  to  wear  gloves  and  head  nets. 

They  visited  the  magnificent  Salto  Bello  Falls  on 
the  Rio  Sacre,  and  the  tremendous  falls  of  Utiarity 


THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT  407 

on  the  Papagaio.  The  latter,  in  the  Colonel's  opinion, 
outrank  any  waterfall  in  North  America  except  Niagara. 
At  a  small  native  village  they  were  highly  diverted 
by  a  game  of  ball,  in  which  the  players  propelled  a 
small  hollow  rubber  ball  entirely  with  their  heads, 
sometimes  throwing  themselves  flat  on  the  ground  for 
the  purpose.  Here  Father  Zahm  and  Sigg  left  them 
and  the  remaining  party  began  to  push  across  the  wild 
country  inhabited  by  the  Nhambiquaras.  This  was  a 
land  of  fever  and  beriberi,  of  incessant  rain  and  poor 
feed,  and  of  the  maddening  piuin  flies.  The  mules  and 
oxen  were  growing  weak  and  the  Canadian  canoe, 
together  with  a  motor-engine  and  gasoline,  had  to  be 
left  behind  to  lighten  their  loads.  They  were  now  crossing 
numerous  small  rivers  and  brooks  which  formed  part 
of  the  headwaters  of  the  Tapajos,  which  is  itself  one 
of  the  mightiest  tributaries  of  the  Amazon.  Before 
long  they  met  a  party  of  Nhambiquaras,  who  are  wild, 
naked  and  absolutely  primitive  savages.  The  rain  fell 
almost  incessantly. 

After  more  than  five  weeks  of  this  kind  of  travel 
they  arrived  at  last  at  the  River  of  Doubt.  Before 
reaching  the  river  the  party  had  split.  Fiala  had  some 
time  since  started  on  an  expedition  down  the  Papagaio. 
Miller  with  another  party  went  off  across  country  to 
descend  the  Gy-Parana.  Roosevelt  and  his  son  Kermit, 
Colonel  Rondon,  Cherrie,  Lieutenant  Lyra,  Doctor 
Cajazeira  and  sixteen  paddlers  were  left  to  attempt 
the  descent  of  the  River  of  Doubt.  They  took  with 
them  partial  rations  for  about  fifty  days,  tents,  a  few 
books,  and  such  necessities  as  food,  medicine,  blankets 
and  surveying  instruments.  They  were  about  to  embark 
upon  an  adventure  whose  extent  it  was  absolutely 


408  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

impossible  to  determine.  They  might  soon  find  them 
selves  on  easily  navigable  water,  or  they  might  be  obliged 
to  struggle  for  weeks  through  untold  hardships.  Time 
alone  would  show.  They  were  facing  certain  danger 
and  possible  death. 

On  February  27,  1914,  shortly  after  mid-day,  they 
started  in  their  seven  dugout  canoes,  only  three  of 
which  were  really  first-class.  Roosevelt  traveled  with 
Cherrie  and  the  doctor  in  a  large  canoe  handled  by 
three  native  paddlers.  All  the  way  down  the  river 
it  was  necessary  to  stop  at  short  intervals  to  survey. 
During  the  first  day  Kermit  carried  the  sighting-rod 
and  landed  nearly  a  hundred  times,  and  they  made  in 
all  about  six  miles.  The  water  was  high  and  traveling 
at  first  was  easy.  On  both  sides  of  the  stream  rose  solid 
walls  of  matted  forest,  in  which  at  night  a  space  was 
cleared  with  the  axes  for  the  camp. 

On  they  went  through  the  silent  forest  where  white 
men  had  never  been  before.  On  the  fourth  day  the 
current  began  to  quicken,  and  they  heard  the  roar  of 
rapids  ahead.  They  walked  down  along  the  edge  of 
the  stream  and  found  that  the  rapids  were  absolutely 
impassable  and  that  the  portage  would  be  a  difficult 
one.  It  took  two  days  and  a  half  to  carry  their  boats 
and  equipment  down  to  the  foot  of  the  rapids  over 
the  stony  and  difficult  portage,  which  was  nearly  a  mile 
in  length.  The  rain  poured  down  and  swarms  of  bees 
and  flies  attacked  them.  Fly  ointment  was  resorted  to 
which  was  useful  until  it  was  washed  off  by  perspiration; 
but  some  of  the  insects  were  so  small  that  a  head  net 
was  no  protection.  Ants,  too,  were  numerous  and  vora 
cious;  one  night  they  ate  all  of  the  doctor's  undershirt 
and  chewed  holes  in  his  mosquito  net. 


^l 

ail 


THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT  409 

The  difficulties  of  portaging  were  great  on  account 
of  the  weight  of  the  boats.  A  road  had  to  be  cut  through 
the  solid  forest  and  on  this  were  laid  small  logs  to  act 
as  rollers.  The  boats  were  then  hauled  out  of  the  river 
with  a  block  and  tackle  and  were  pulled  over  the  rollers 
by  sheer  force.  At  the  bottom  of  the  first  portage  where 
the  canoes  were  launched  again,  one  of  them  filled  with 
water  and  went  to  the  bottom,  so  that  more  time  and 
labor  were  consumed  in  raising  it. 

The  next  day  came  more  rapids  whose  passage  took 
three  days  to  accomplish.  No  sooner  was  this  done 
than  more  rapids  were  reached  and  the  party  began 
to  realize  that  many  weary  days  of  such  work  were 
ahead  of  them.  The  insects  had  become  a  torment. 
Lyra  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  and  the  natives,  working 
in  the  water  to  let  the  canoes  through  difficult  places, 
often  brushed  against  overhanging  branches  from  which 
hordes  of  biting  ants  swarmed  on  them.  There  was 
no  rest  by  day  and  little  by  night  from  flies,  gnats, 
mosquitoes,  ants,  bees  and  multitudes  of  other  small 
vindictive  creatures. 

By  March  10th  they  had  come  only  sixty  miles 
and  had  no  idea  how  much  farther  they  were  to  travel. 
Next  morning  they  found  that  two  of  the  canoes  had 
broken  their  moorings  and  had  been  dashed  to  pieces 
on  the  rocks.  The  men  immediately  set  about  in  the 
pouring  rain  to  build  two  other  boats  to  take  their 
places.  Three  days  later  they  were  again  on  their 
way.  During  all  this  time  a  tremendous  rain  had 
continued  practically  without  cessation,  and  every 
one's  clothes  were  wet  day  and  night.  The  native 
paddlers  generally  went  barefoot  or  wore  sandals; 
in  consequence,  their  feet  were  so  swollen  and 


410  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

inflamed  from  insect  bites  that  at  times  they  were 
unable  to  work. 

On  March  15th,  after  paddling  four  miles  down  the 
river,  they  came  to  another  rapids.  Venturing  too 
near  the  beginning  of  the  swift  water,  the  canoe  contain 
ing  Kermit  and  his  paddlers  was  swept  in  in  an  instant. 
Down  they  went  through  the  rapids  with  the  canoe 
right  side  up  but  almost  full  of  water.  At  the  bottom 
it  seemed  that  they  would  make  the  shore,  but  a  sudden 
eddy  carried  them  to  mid-stream  and  turned  them  over. 
One  of  the  paddlers  swam  strongly  and  reached  the  shore, 
but  the  other  was  sucked  down  by  the  boiling  torrent 
and  was  never  seen  again.  Kermit  climbed  on  the  bot 
tom  of  the  boat  and  was  whirled  down  the  next  series 
of  rapids.  When  he  reached  the  bottom  he  was  almost 
drowned  and  close  to  exhaustion,  but  he  had  enough 
strength  left  to  swim  to  an  overhanging  branch  and 
finally  to  make  the  shore. 

They  camped  by  these  rapids  for  the  night,  and 
next  morning  put  on  the  post  with  which  they  marked 
their  camping  spot,  the  inscription,  "In  these  rapids 
died  poor  Simplicio."  Then  they  pressed  on  past  more 
rapids  and  through  the  interminable  rain.  On  the  next 
day,  while  Colonel  Rondon  was  exploring  the  bank 
of  the  river,  accompanied  by  one  of  the  dogs,  a  strange 
howling  noise,  which  sounded  like  spider-monkeys, 
attracted  his  attention  and  the  dog  ran  ahead  to  inves 
tigate.  In  a  minute  he  heard  the  animal  coming  toward 
him  yelping  with  pain,  and  then  suddenly  there  was 
silence.  Accompanied  by  Lyra,  Kermit  and  one  of  the 
natives,  Rondon  found  the  dog  dead  with  two  arrows 
through  his  body.  It  was  evident  that  he  had  been 
killed  by  Indians. 


THE  RIVER  OF  DOUBT  411 

By  this  time  they  had  been  gone  eighteen  days  and 
had  used  over  a  third  of  their  food,  although  they  had 
traveled  but  eighty  miles.  It  was  now  necessary  to 
lighten  the  loads  and  to  travel  so  as  to  avoid  possible 
Indian  attacks.  Accordingly  they  abandoned  all  the 
baggage  that  they  could  possibly  spare,  leaving,  among 
other  things,  two  big  tents  and  a  box  of  surveying  instru 
ments.  Personal  belongings  were  cut  to  the  minimum. 
Thus  equipped  they  started  again  down  the  river,  Roose 
velt  and  the  doctor  traveling  in  the  two  canoes  with 
six  paddlers,  while  the  rest  of  the  party  went  on  foot 
down  the  bank.  They  passed  the  mouth  of  a  small 
stream  coming  in  from  the  west,  which  Colonel  Rondon 
named  the  Rio  Kermit,  and  soon  afterwards  reached 
a  little  Indian  fishing  village,  from  which  the  inhabitants 
had  fled  in  panic.  Here  they  left  an  axe  and  a  knife 
and  some  red  beads,  as  signs  of  friendship,  and  pressed 
steadily  on.  Four  canoes  had  been  lost  by  this  time 
and  it  was  decided  to  build  two  large  ones  to  take  their 
places;  a  space  was  cleared  in  the  forest  for  a  camp 
and  the  men  set  to  work.  There  were  piranhas  in  the 
river  but  the  party  bathed  in  spite  of  them.  The  danger 
from  cannibal  fish  could  not  deter  them  from  seeking 
a  respite  from  the  tormenting  insects. 

They  were  now  down  to  two  meals  a  day,  eked  out 
by  palm-tops  when  they  could  get  them,  and  occa 
sionally  by  small  game  or  fish.  The  lack  of  food  and  the 
tremendous  physical  labor  were  beginning  to  tell  on 
the  party.  Some  of  the  men  had  fever,  and  were  only 
kept  from  serious  sickness  by  repeated  doses  of  quinine. 
The  rapids  grew  more  and  more  continuous  and  the 
spaces  of  open  water  between  them  shorter  and  shorter. 
In  one  place  two  laden  canoes  were  swept  under  by  the 


412  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

current  and  were  only  saved  after  hours  of  arduous  toil. 
They  reached  a  range  of  low  mountains,  through 
which  the  river  ran  in  a  long  canyon  with  several  high 
waterfalls.  Again  they  cut  down  their  equipment, 
keeping  only  one  tent  and  less  clothing  than  was  really 
necessary.  The  canoes  were  lowered  through  the  rapids 
and  the  equipment  was  carried  along  the  almost  impass 
able  sides  of  the  rocky  gorge.  One  of  the  canoes  had 
its  bottom  beaten  out  on  the  rocks,  and  another  was 
lost  further  down  in  a  piece  of  furious  rapids.  The 
insect  bites  had  become  festering  wounds,  and  poisonous 
ants,  flies,  ticks,  and  bees  were  a  perpetual  torment. 

Among  the  natives  was  a  powerful  man  named 
Julio.  He  was  sullen  and  a  shirker  and  had  been  caught 
stealing  food,  which  was  a  very  serious  crime.  One 
evening  Paishon,  a  negro  corporal,  caught  him  in  the 
act  of  theft  and  struck  him  in  the  mouth.  The  next 
day  Julio,  having  carried  his  burden  down  the  portage, 
picked  up  a  rifle  and  went  back  along  the  trail,  osten 
sibly  to  hunt.  A  minute  later  the  party  heard  a  shot, 
and  hurrying  back,  found  Paishon  lying  dead,  shot 
through  the  heart.  Julio  had  vanished.  They  did  not 
try  to  pursue  the  murderer,  for  starvation  and  sickness 
were  staring  them  in  the  face.  Three  days  later  as  they 
were  paddling  down  the  stream,  he  suddenly  appeared 
and  called  out  that  he  wanted  to  surrender.  No  one 
answered  him,  but  at  the  next  halt  Colonel  Rondon 
decided  that  it  was  his  duty,  as  an  officer  of  the  Bra 
zilian  government,  to  take  the  man  in  custody.  Two 
of  the  natives  were  sent  back  to  find  him  but  they 
returned  empty  handed.  Julio  was  never  seen  again. 

Shortly  after  this,  Roosevelt,  while  working  in  the 
water  with  an  upset  canoe,  struck  his  leg  against  a 


THE   RIVER  OF  DOUBT  413 

boulder.  The  wound  became  badly  inflamed  and  for 
two  days  he  lay  desperately  ill.  He  realized  that  the 
food  was  running  out  and  vainly  implored  Colonel 
Rondon  to  leave  him  behind  and  to  lead  the  rest  of  the 
party  to  safety.  Then  the  fever  broke  a  little  and  he 
was  able  to  struggle  to  his  feet,  but  he  had  to  be  carried 
over  the  portages  by  two  of  the  natives  on  an  improvised 
chair.  Kermit,  Lyra  and  Cherrie  were  also  sick  but 
continued  to  w^ork  most  of  the  time  in  spite  of  it. 

But  now  the  rocky  gorge  was  past  and  there  were 
fewer  rapids.  One  day  they  made  over  twenty  miles, 
which  was  a  great  encouragement.  They  passed  the 
mouth  of  a  big  river  running  in  from  the  right  which 
they  named  the  Rio  Cardozo,  after  a  friend  of  Colonel 
Rondon's.  Soon  after  this  they  shot  some  game  and 
caught  an  enormous  catfish,  and  were  very  grateful 
for  the  taste  of  fresh  meat.  On  Easter  Sunday  they 
struck  rapids  again  and  spent  eight  hours  portaging 
and  only  ten  minutes  in  paddling,  but  by  way  of  com 
pensation  they  got  twenty-eight  big  fish,  and  for  two 
meals  they  all  had  as  much  as  they  wanted  to  eat. 

April  15th  was  a  great  day.  They  had  run  two  hours 
and  a  half  down  the  stream  when  they  found  a  post 
with  a  board  on  it  bearing  the  initials  J.  A.  This  post 
marked  the  farthest  limits  of  a  rubber-man's  explorations. 
An  hour  later  they  came  to  a  newly  built  house  whose 
inhabitants,  however,  were  not  there,  and  an  hour  after 
that  reached  the  home  of  an  old  Brazilian  peasant. 
He  was  the  first  human  being  whom  they  had  seen  since 
they  had  started  down  the  river  nearly  seven  weeks 
before. 

It  was  time  for  the  journey  to  end.  The  strain  had 
begun  to  tell  on  them  all.  Roosevelt's  leg  was  giving 


414  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

him  serious  trouble  and  had  developed  an  abscess  which 
had  to  be  drained  and  bandaged.  No  sooner  had  they 
passed  the  worst  part  of  the  trip  than  he  developed 
a  serious  fever,  through  which  he  was  nursed  for  ten 
days  by  the  ceaseless  care  of  his  son  and  their  com 
panions. 

Farther  down  the  river  they  spent  their  last  night 
under  canvas,  and  the  next  morning  gathered  at  the 
monument  which  Colonel  Rondon  had  erected,  while 
he  read  the  orders  of  the  day.  He  recited  the  principal 
events  of  the  expedition  and  declared  that  the  River 
of  Doubt  was  hereafter,  by  order  of  the  Brazilian  Gov 
ernment,  to  be  known  as  the  Rio  Roosevelt.  Subse 
quently  this  name  was  changed  to  Rio  Teodoro — the 
River  Theodore.  From  here  on  travel  was  easy.  Soon 
a  steamer  was  reached  which  took  the  party  down  to  the 
Madeira  River,  from  which  the  trip  to  the  Amazon 
and  so  back  to  the  United  States,  was  a  luxury  for  the 
weary  explorers. 

The  expedition  had  been  a  very  considerable  achieve 
ment,  both  from  a  zoological  and  a  geographical  stand 
point.  Cherrie  and  Miller  had  collected  three  thousand 
specimens,  many  of  which  were  new  to  science.  All 
of  them  together  had,  to  use  the  Colonel's  words,  "put 
upon  the  map  a  river  some  fifteen  hundred  kilometers 
in  length,  of  which  the  upper  course  was  not  merely 
utterly  unknown  to,  but  unguessed  at  by,  anybody; 
while  the  lower  course,  although  known  for  years  to  a 
few  rubber-men,  was  utterly  unknown  to  cartographers." 
The  expedition  had  been  arduous  and  might  easily 
have  proved  fatal  to  any  one  of  them,  but  consistent 
willingness  and  perseverance  had  triumphed  over  the 
most  formidable  natural  obstacles. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912 

ON  his  arrival  from  South  America  on  May  19, 
1914,  Roosevelt  had  by  no  means  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  his  trip  and  the  serious  illness 
through  which  he  had  passed.  Nevertheless,  he  at  once 
arranged  to  take  part  in  the  political  campaign  for 
members  of  Congress  and  for  Governors  which  was  then 
under  way,  although  the  only  definite  early  speaking 
engagement  he  made  was  to  make  an  address  in  Pitts 
burgh  on  June  30th.  In  that  state  Gifford  Pinchot 
and  I  were  candidates  on  the  Progressive  ticket  for 
Senator  and  Governor  respectively. 

Roosevelt  had  only  been  in  the  country  for  a  few 
days  when  he  sailed  for  Spain  to  attend  the  wedding 
of  his  son  Kermit  at  the  American  Embassy  in  Madrid. 
He  was  back  again  in  New  York  before  the  end  of  June. 
Before  going  to  Madrid  he  had  asked  me  to  write  out 
what  I  thought  he  ought  to  say  at  Pittsburgh  and  he 
added,  "I  may  not  say  it,  but  it  is  better  for  me  to  have 
something."  The  next  day  after  his  return  I  went  to 
Oyster  Bay  with  the  manuscript  in  my  pocket.  He 
used  but  very  little  of  it  because  with  his  usual  fore- 
handedness,  knowing  that  he  had  to  make  the  address, 
he  wrote  out  on  the  return  steamer,  in  spite  of  his  phy 
sical  condition,  practically  all  that  he  wanted  to  say. 
This  Pittsburgh  address  was  really  a  wonderful  exhi 
bition  of  will-power.  He  ought  never  to  have  made  it. 

When  his  train  arrived  in  Pittsburgh  he  was  really 

(415) 


416  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

thoroughly  exhausted  and  yet  he  Jield  a  great  audience 
for  over  an  hour,  and  I  am  sure  that  only  those  immedi 
ately  near  him  on  the  platform  realized  the  conscious 
physical  exertion  he  was  undergoing. 

Some  weeks  later,  when  the  New  York  campaign 
was  well  under  way,  he  toured  a  large  part  of  the  state 
in  an  automobile  with  the  Progressive  candidate  for 
Governor.  He  also  made  addresses  in  Louisiana  and  other 
states,  and  went  through  Pennsylvania  in  a  special 
train,  speaking  in  behalf  of  the  Progressive  candidates 
for  United  States  Senator  and  Governor.  Here  he  was 
everywhere  greeted  by  great  crowds  which,  as  far  as 
those  of  us  who  accompanied  him  could  see,  were  no 
less  numerous  and  enthusiastic  than  they  had  been 
two  years  before. 

The  results  of  the  fall  elections,  if  not  a  surprise, 
were  a  great  disappointment  to  him.  The  total  Pro 
gressive  vote  fell  from  over  4,000,000  to  slightly  under 
2,000,000.  The  Progressive  party's  representation  in 
Congress  was  reduced  from  fifteen  to  seven  members. 
/  The  party  failed  to  carry  a  single  state  except  California, 
where  Hiram  W.  Johnson  was  re-elected  by  a  plurality 
'  of  130,000.  Though  a  large  vote  was  also  polled  in 
I  Pennsylvania,  the  results  of  the  elections,  taken  as  a 
whole,  showed  that  the  Progressive  party,  as  a  political 
organization,  was  beginning  to  disintegrate.  Indeed, 
outside  of  two  or  three  states,  there  was  no  effective 
local  party  organization. 

During  these  closing  days  of  political  activity  Roose 
velt  was  a  party  to  two  famous  libel  suits  in  which 
his  personal  and  political  career  were  so  carefully  scru 
tinized  by  his  enemies  and  so  completely  exposed  to  public 
view  that  no  serious  fault  could  have  escaped  detection. 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         417 

The  first  of  these  was  the  Newett  case.  George  A. 
Newett  had  held  the  position  of  postmaster  in  Ishpeming, 
Michigan,  by  Roosevelt's  appointment,  and  had  been 
his  strong  supporter  for  some  years.  In  1912,  however, 
he  remained  in  the  Republican  party  and  became  one 
of  Roosevelt's  bitter  opponents.  On  October  12,  1912, 
shortly  before  the  Presidential  election,  he  published 
in  his  weekly  paper,  the  Iron  Ore,  this  statement: 
"Roosevelt  lies  and  curses  in  a  most  disgusting  way.  He 
gets  drunk  too,  and  that  not  infrequently,  and  all  his 
intimates  know  about  it." 

For  some  time  these  slanders,  especially  with  respect 
to  intoxication,  had  been  circulated  by  Roosevelt's 
enemies,  and  on  one  or  two  occasions  had  appeared 
in  irresponsible  newspapers.  He  finally  determined  to 
wait  until  such  a  statement  appeared  in  a  reputable 
paper  and  then  to  nail  the  lie  once  and  forever.  Accord 
ingly,  less  than  two  weeks  after  Newett's  statement 
appeared,  he  brought  suit  for  libel.  On  May  26,  1913, 
the  case  came  to  trial  at  Ishpeming  before  a  jury  of 
plain  American  citizens.  Roosevelt's  purpose  was  to 
show  that  the  accusations  of  blasphemy  and  drunk 
enness  were  totally  unfounded  falsehoods. 

Thirty -five  witnesses  testified  in  his  behalf,  covering 
the  whole  of  his  life  from  the  time  he  was  twenty-one. 
The  case  had  been  prepared  with  great  care  by  Roosevelt 
and  by  his  counsel,  James  H.  Pound  and  his  assistants. 
For  the  fifteen  years  immediately  preceding  the  trial 
they  produced  testimony  which  covered  almost  every 
hour  of  Roosevelt's  waking  life.  His  friends  eagerly 
came  to  testify  to  his  unimpeachable  personal  character. 
There  were  personal  friends  such  as  Jacob  A.  Riis  and 
Albert  Shaw;  business  associates  such  as  Lyman  Abbott, 

27 


418  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  editor  of  the  Outlook;  cousins  from  Oyster  Bay; 
the  naturalists  who  had  traveled  with  him  in  Africa; 
Dr.  Alexander  Lambert,  who  had  been  his  family  phy 
sician  and  camping  companion  for  many  years;  men 
who  had  served  under  him  when  he  was  President, 
such  as  Loeb,  Pinchot  and  Garfield;  servants  in  his 
house;  secret  service  men;  newspaper  correspondents; 
and  General  Leonard  Wood,  who  had  been  intimately 
thrown  with  him  not  only  in  Cuba  but  often  thereafter. 
All  of  these  testified  to  the  same  effect:  that  they  had 
never  seen  Roosevelt  drink  any  alcoholic  beverage 
other  than  wine  except  as  a  medicine;  that  he  was  very 
sparing  in  his  use  even  of  wine,  and  that  he  had  never 
been  influenced  even  to  the  slightest  degree  by  anything 
that  he  had  drunk.  They  also  proved  conclusively 
the  falsity  of  the  charge  of  blasphemy. 

The  presentation  of  this  mass  of  testimony  occupied 
a  full  week.  When  it  had  been  fully  presented,  the 
defendant  made  a  statement  in  which  he  explained 
that  he  had  published  the  libellous  charges  upon  infor 
mation  which  he  had  believed  to  be  correct,  but  that 
in  casting  about  to  prepare  his  defense,  he  had  been 
unable  to  find  any  one  who  could  state  from  his  own 
knowledge  that  he  had  ever  seen  Roosevelt  under  the 
influence  of  liquor.  He  said  that  he  had  been  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  tremendous  weight  of  evidence  which 
had  been  produced,  and  concluded  by  saying  that  he 
was  now  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  been 
mistaken. 

This  was  all  Roosevelt  wanted.  As  soon  as  Newett 
had  finished  he  said  to  the  court:  "I  did  not  go  into 
this  suit  for  money.  I  did  not  go  into  it  for  any  vindictive 
purpose.  I  went  into  it,  and,  as  the  court  has  said, 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         419 

I  made  my  reputation  an  issue,  because  I  wished,  once 
for  all  during  my  lifetime,  thoroughly  and  comprehen 
sively  to  deal  with  these  slanders,  so  that  never  again 
will  it  be  possible  for  any  man,  in  good  faith,  to  repeat 
them.  I  have  achieved  my  purpose,  and  I  am  content." 
The  jury,  by  direction  of  the  court,  then  found  a  verdict 
in  Roosevelt's  favor  in  the  nominal  sum  of  six  cents. 

The  case  is  interesting,  not  only  because  it  proves 
conclusively  the  cleanness  of  Roosevelt's  private  life, 
but  because  it  shows  the  extraordinary  thoroughness 
with  which  he  prosecuted  any  undertaking  to  which 
he  turned  his  hand.  The  array  of  witnesses  and  the  care 
ful  manner  in  which  they  were  chosen  to  cover  every 
portion  of  his  life,  so  far  as  that  was  possible,  indicated 
his  determination  to  make  his  vindication  complete 
and  lasting;  and  complete  and  lasting  it  certainly  was. 

In  the  other  famous  libel  suit  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
Roosevelt  was  the  defendant  instead  of  the  plaintiff. 
In  July,  1914,  he  made  a  statement  in  support  of  Harvey 
D.  Hinman,  who  was  a  candidate  for  the  Republican 
and  Progressive  nominations  for  Governor  of  New  York. 
In  this  statement  he  alleged  that  William  Barnes,  Jr., 
the  Republican  leader  in  the  state,  was  in  a  bi-partisan 
alliance  with  the  Democratic  State  Organization  in 
the  interests  of  crooked  politics  and  crooked  business. 
Barnes  responded  by  bringing  suit  for  libel  and  the  case 
finally  came  on  to  trial  at  Syracuse  on  April  19,  1915. 

The  trial  lasted  for  more  than  a  month.  Roosevelt's 
political  record  was  gone  over  with  a  fine-tooth  comb. 
His  relations  with  Senator  Platt  while  he  was  Governor 
of  New  York  were  subjected  to  the  closest  scrutiny. 
The  story  of  the  campaign  contributions  in  1904  was 
again  dragged  out  before  the  public  view.  No  stone 


420  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

was  left  unturned  in  the  attempt  to  show  that  he  himself 
had  been  guilty  of  practicing  the  crooked  politics  for 
which  he  had  reproved  Barnes.  But  there  was  nothing 
of  which  the  Colonel  had  any  cause  to  be  ashamed, 
and  the  most  exhaustive  examination  and  cross-exami 
nation,  which  was  pursued  for  days,  brought  no  results 
to  the  plaintiff. 

Then  came  Roosevelt's  turn.  He  showed  that  Barnes, 
through  his  newspaper,  the  Albany  Evening  Journal, 
had  made  unlawful  profits  in  public  printing.  He  showed 
the  bi-partisan  alliance  with  the  Democratic  machine 
and  how  it  had  operated  to  defeat  legislation  or  to  elect 
candidates.  His  witnesses  were  familiar  with  their 
facts  and  impressed  the  jury  with  their  veracity.  Justice 
Andrews,  when  the  evidence  was  all  in,  charged  the 
jury  that  the  questions  for  their  consideration  were 
whether  there  had  been  an  alliance  between  Barnes 
and  the  Democratic  leaders,  and  whether  Barnes  had 
worked  through  a  corrupt  alliance  between  crooked 
politics  and  crooked  business.  For  two  days  the  jury 
deliberated  and  then  returned  a  verdict  in  favor  of 
the  defendant.  In  other  words,  they  believed  Roosevelt's 
statements  to  be  true.  He  had  done  the  public  a  real 
service  not  only  by  exposing  the  practices  of  the  bi 
partisan  machine  but  by  vindicating  the  right  of  an 
honest  man  to  speak  the  truth  about  that  machine. 
For  himself,  he  had  brought  before  the  people  the  details 
of  his  political  life  and  had  shown  that  its  fairness  was 
above  reproach. 

As  the  Presidential  campaign  for  1916  approached, 
it  was  the  hope  of  the  Progressives,  and  of  large  numbers 
of  those  who  had  never  left  the  Republican  party,  that 
the  Republicans  would  nominate  Roosevelt  and  thus 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912 

pave  the  way  for  a  reunion  of  the  two  parties.  To  this 
end  it  was  arranged  that  the  second  Progressive  National 
Convention  should  take  place  at  Chicago  on  June  7th, 
the  same  day  as  the  Republican  Convention. 

That  the  Progressives  would  nominate  Roosevelt 
was  a  foregone  conclusion.  Roosevelt,  himself,  while 
he  consented  to  the  effort  being  made  to  secure  his 
nomination  by  the  Republicans,  had  not  the  slightest 
expectation  that  it  would  be  successful.  Those  who 
still  remained  members  of  the  Progressive  party  could 
not  vote  in  the  Republican  primaries,  and  of  course 
this  meant  a  large  reduction  in  his  strength  in  the  Repub 
lican  party  as  compared  with  four  years  before.  Those 
who  had  opposed  him  in  1912,  while  their  feelings  in 
reference  to  him  were  no  longer  as  violent  as  they  had 
been,  \vere  for  the  most  part  still  opposed  to  him.  They 
had  not  forgiven  him  for  forming  a  third  party,  and  still 
attributed  the  defeat  of  the  Republicans  in  the  election 
of  that  year  to  him  rather  than  to  the  mistakes  of  their 
own  leaders.  All  these  adverse  factors  were  appreciated 
not  only  by  Roosevelt,  but  also  by  the  other  Progressive 
leaders. 

But  Roosevelt  himself  had  an  additional  reason  for 
believing  that  he  could  not  be  nominated  in  the  Repub 
lican  Convention.  He  saw  that  his  campaign  for  pre 
paredness  and  his  general  position  in  regard  to  the  duties 
imposed  on  the  United  States  by  the  events  of  the  great 
war  in  Europe  made  his  candidacy  peculiarly  objection 
able  to  a  considerable  class  of  persons  of  German  descent 
whose  sympathies  were  with  the  Central  Powers.  He 
was  convinced  that,  combined  with  the  other  causes 
we  have  mentioned,  the  fear  of  the  German  vote  would 
make  practically  impossible  his  nomination  by  the 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

type  of  men  who  would  naturally  go  to  the  Republican 
Convention  in  the  absence  of  progressive  competition. 
His  opinion  was  justified  by  the  event.  The  convention 
was  made  up  of  three  classes  of  persons:  men  who 
wanted  to  nominate  Roosevelt,  men  who  disliked  and 
distrusted  him,  or  at  least  had  not  forgiven  him  for  what 
they  called  his  treachery  to  the  party,  and  men  who 
were  afraid  that  if  he  were  nominated  he  could  not  be 
elected  because  of  the  opposition  of  German  sympathizers. 
The  last  two  classes  largely  outnumbered  the  first. 

Of  course  the  delegates  to  the  Republican  Convention 
wanted  to  nominate  a  candidate  who  could  win,  and 
every  delegate  knew  that  no  Republican  candidate 
could  win  if  Roosevelt  ran  on  a  Progressive  ticket. 
A  three-party  fight  would  insure  the  return  of  the  Demo 
crats  to  power.  But  Roosevelt  had  been  unsparing 
in  his  criticism  of  the  Democratic  administration  for 
its  course  towards  Mexico  and  for  what  he  regarded 
as  its  apparent  indifference  and  even  antagonism  to 
any  preparation  for  the  event  of  war,  as  well  as  for  its 
whole  manner  of  dealing  with  the  questions  arising 
out  of  the  war.  And  it  is  a  high  compliment  to  the 
belief  of  the  delegates  in  Roosevelt's  sense  of  public 
duty,  that  the  great  majority  had  absolute  confidence 
that  if  they  could  nominate  a  candidate  of  high  character 
whose  record  was  not  wholly  reactionary,  Roosevelt 
would  support  him  rather  than  accept  the  nomination 
of  the  Progressive  party  and  thus  insure  the  return 
of  the  Democratic  administration  to  power. 

In  Mr.  Justice  Hughes  the  delegates  to  the  Repub 
lican  Convention  had  just  the  candidate  they  desired. 
His  nomination  was  practically  assured  before  the 
convention  met.  Four  years  before,  had  the  leaders 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         423 

kept  their  hands  off  the  situation,  the  delegates,  left 
to  themselves,  would  have  gone  to  Roosevelt  with  a 
hurrah.  In  this  convention  of  1916,  had  some  of  the 
leaders  not  hesitated,  Hughes  would  have  been  nominated 
as  rapidly  as  possible. 

The  leaders  did  hesitate,  and  appointed  a  committee 
to  confer  with  a  similar  committee  appointed  by  the 
Progressive  Convention  to  ascertain  if  a  candidate 
satisfactory  to  both  conventions  could  not  be  nominated. 
They  did  this  because  the  enthusiasm  of  the  delegates 
to  the  Progressive  Convention  showed  that  a  real  third 
party  might  still  be  ready  to  make  the  fight.  The  story 
of  this  Progressive  Convention  will  some  day  be 
adequately  told.  A  party  which  existed  as  an  effective 
political  organization  only  in  spots,  succeeded  not  only 
in  going  through  all  the  forms  of  a  great  national  con 
vention,  but  in  kindling  anew  among  the  delegates 
the  fire  and  enthusiasm  of  four  years  before.  But  that 
is  not  the  story  of  Roosevelt.  True,  he  was  the  source 
of  the  inspiration  and  of  the  enthusiasm,  but  the  exec 
utive  direction  that  made  possible  this  great  national 
convention  was  that  of  Mr.  George  W.  Perkins,  who 
was  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Pro 
gressive  National  Committee.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  movement  to  nominate  Roosevelt  in  1912,  he 
had  given  of  his  time  and  means  to  promote  the  progres 
sive  cause.  The  plan  to  force  the  Republican  party 
to  nominate  Roosevelt  in  1916  was  primarily  his  plan. 
Every  movement  was  well  thought  out  and  skilfully 
executed  and  the  effort  only  failed  of  success  because 
from  the  start  success  was  impossible. 

The  great  majority  of  the  delegates  to  the  Progressive 
Convention  throughout  all  the  first  meetings  were 


424  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

buoyed  up  by  the  conviction  that  the  Republicans 
would  nominate  Roosevelt.  Many  believed  that  the 
correct  policy  was  to  nominate  him  in  the  Progressive 
Convention  and  then  adjourn,  thus  ending  any  hope 
of  compromise  on  any  other  candidate.  They  failed 
to  realize  that  such  a  course  would  place  Roosevelt 
in  the  impossible  position  of  declaring  that  he  was  the 
only  candidate  on  whom  the  two  parties  could  unite. 
But  more  than  once  the  natural  but  wholly  unwarranted 
suspicion  went  over  the  assembly  that  the  leaders  who 
counselled  any  other  course  were  being  fooled  or  were 
guilty  of  treachery  to  Roosevelt.  Only  the  ability  and 

/  force  of  Raymond  Robbins,  the  chairman,  and  the 
absolute  confidence  of  the  delegates  in  him,  kept  the 
assembly  from  getting  out  of  hand. 

For   my   own  part,  the  recollection  of  those    days 
and   nights   is    like   a  nightmare.       I   had   little   hopef 

/of  our  success,  and  no  one  could  have  been  a  part 
of  that  gathering  without  realizing  how  bitter  would 
be  the  inevitable  disappointment  of  the  delegates.// 
There  was,  however,  one  moment  of  real  satisfaction. 
I  was  again  chairman  of  the  Resolutions,  or  Platform, 
Committee,  and  as  chairman,  my  duty  was  to  read 
the  platform  prepared  by  the  committee  to  the 
convention.  For  the  first  time,  I  believe,  in  the 
history  of  national  conventions,  the  platform  was 
not  adopted  until  each  plank  had  been  voted  on 
separately,  and  over  many  of  the  planks  there  was 
extended  debate.  But  when  I  came  to  the  plank 
dealing  with  the  obligation  of  every  citizen  of  a  democ 
racy  to  prepare  in  time  of  peace  to  defend  the  country 
in  time  of  war,  a  great  shout  went  up  from  the  assembly. 
Then  I  knew  that  Roosevelt's  educational  campaign 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         425 

for  preparedeness  had  been  successful  with  the  great 
majority  of  those  who  followed  him  originally  because 
of  his  position  on  social  legislation  and  on  the  right 
of  the  people  to  rule;  and  I  knew  also  that  the  way 
in  which  this  plank  had  been  received  would  give  him 
greater  satisfaction  than  anything  that  had  happened 
at  the  convention. 

Saturday  morning,  the  fourth  day  of  the  convention, 
as  soon  as  word  came  that  the  Republicans  we^re  about 
to  nominate  Justice  Hughes,  the  Progressives  nominated 
Roosevelt.  He  at  once  telegraphed  from  Oyster  Bay 
saying  that  the  nomination  would  be  declined  if  an 
immediate  answer  was  desired,  but  that  the  declination 
would  be  regarded  as  conditional  if  it  was  referred  to 
the  Progressive  National  Committee.  A  meeting  of 
the  National  Committee  was  called  for  June  26th, 
and  the  second  and  last  Progressive  National  Con 
vention  adjourned. 

Within  a  few  hours  of  Mr.  Justice  Hughes'  nomination 
by  the  Republican  Convention  in  Chicago,  James  R. 
Garfield  and  I,  at  Roosevelt's  request,  left  Chicago 
for  Oyster  Bay.  His  object  in  sending  for  us  was  to 
have  at  first  hand  an  account  of  the  occurrences  of  the 
Progressive  Convention  and  a  better  idea  than  was 
possible  over  the  telephone  of  the  sentiments  and  opinions 
of  the  different  elements  of  which  that  convention  had 
been  composed. 

We  arrived  in  New  York  Monday  morning  and  a 
few  hours  later  an  automobile  delivered  us  at  Sagamore 
Hill.  It  was  a  lovely  June  morning.  I  have  never  seen 
the  rolling,  wooded  country,  the  cove  on  which  the 
little  village  of  Oyster  Bay  is  situated,  and  Sagamore 
Hill  itself,  wear  a  more  charming  aspect.  Personally, 


426  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

however,  I  was  out  of  tune  with  the  beauty  of  the  day, 
and  this,  I  think,  was  true  also  of  my  companion.  The 
ordeal  of  the  Progressive  Convention,  the  days  and 
nights  with  little  or  no  sleep,  the  disappointment  at  the 
result,  had  told  on  both  of  us;  although  the  journey  on 
the  train  had  been  a  rest,  we  were  far  from  rested.  We 
found  the  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  sitting  on  the 
side  porch.  I  have  never  seen  him  more  serene.  There 
was  not  a  trace  of  disappointment.  We  had  not  been 
with  him  ten  minutes  before  our  own  overstrained  nerves 
were  relaxed.  His  moods  were  always  contagious,  and 
that  morning  he  was  content.  Of  course  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  have  become  President.  As  he  himself 
expressed  it,  he  enjoyed  the  job.  But  he  also  enjoyed 
many  other  things;  above  all,  his  home,  his  family, 
and  all  things  pertaining  to  his  life  as  a  country  gentle 
man.  And  so  he  was  content,  and  his  visitors,  catching 
his  spirit,  grew  content  also. 

Not  that  he  did  not  desire  the  nomination.  He 
did  desire  it,  but  his  whole  heart  and  soul  were  in  the 
work  of  arousing  the  American  people  to  the  duty  of 
preparing,  by  military  training,  and  in  other  ways, 
to  maintain  the  rights  and  carry  out  the  obligations 
of  the  United  States.  No  man  saw  more  clearly  than 
he  the  German  menace.  The  only  reason  for  desiring 
the  nomination  which  had  any  real  hold  on  him  at  the 
time  was  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  through  the 
nomination,  and  the  consequent  campaign  for  the  Presi 
dency,  he  would  have  the  supreme  opportunity  of  arousing 
the  American  people  to  the  danger  of  their  unpreparedness 
for  war.  As  he  himself  said, "  My  only  regret  is  that  I  would 
have  been  able  to  carry  on  an  educational  campaign  in  a 
manner  far  more  effective  than  for  me  is  now  possible." 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         427 

For  nearly  three  hours  we  went  over  with  him  all 
the  details  of  the  wonderful  gathering,  not  of  the  dele 
gates  of  an  organized  party,  but  of  the  patriotic  men 
and  women  composing  the  second  and  last  National 
Convention  of  the  Progressive  party.  No  one  was 
better  fitted  than  Garfield,  who  had  been  floor  leader, 
to  give  him  the  details,  and,  what  was  more  important, 
the  wonderful  spirit  which  had  animated  the  convention, 
a  spirit  which  those  who  witnessed  it,  as  well  as  those 
of  us  who  were  a  part  of  it,  will  never  forget. 

Apart  from  his  appreciation  of  the  personal  devotion 
to  him  shown  by  the  delegates,  he  was  most  affected 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  way  in  which  the  convention 
had  reacted  to  the  new  issues  which  the  European  War 
had  forced  on  the  country.  As  I  had  anticipated,  he 
was  especially  gratified  and  pleased  with  my  account 
of  the  reception  by  the  convention  of  the  preparedness 
plank  in  the  platform. 

The  action  of  the  Progressive  Convention  in  nom 
inating  Colonel  Roosevelt  practically  left  entirely  to 
him  the  question  whether  the  Progressive  party  should 
or  should  not  be  continued.  Of  the  right  course  for  him 
to  take  he  had  not  the  slightest  doubt.  He  believed 
that  the  forthcoming  utterances  of  Mr.  Hughes,  as 
well  as  the  attitude  which  Mr.  Hughes  would  take 
in  the  ensuing  two  weeks  towards  Progressives,  would 
make  it  improper  for  him  to  accept  the  Progressive 
nomination.  His  criticisms  of  the  Democratic  admin 
istration  had  been  unsparing.  To  insure  the  re-election 
of  the  President  by  refusing  to  unite  and  to  urge  all 
Progressives  to  unite  to  secure  the  President's  defeat 
would  have  been  not  only  foolish,  but  morally  unjus 
tifiable.  All  this  he  stated  to  us  clearly  and  somewhat 


428  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

emphatically,  because  he  was  already  in  receipt  of  many 
telegrams  urging  him  to  run  as  a  third  party  candidate, 
and  he  never  had  much  sympathy  with  persons  who 
recommended  unpractical  action,  especially  if  he  believed 
the  action  under  the  circumstances  essentially  immoral. 

As  anticipated,  Mr.  Hughes'  position  on  public 
questions  and  his  attitude  towards  the  Progressive 
leaders  who  had  called  upon  him  was  such  that  Roosevelt 
could  follow  his  first  impulse.  He  sent  a  communication 
to  the  Progressive  National  Committee,  in  Chicago, 
definitely  declining  the  nomination,  and  declaring  his 
intention  to  support  Mr.  Hughes.  The  great  majority 
of  the  leaders  of  the  party  and  of  its  members  followed 
his  advice  and  voted  the  Republican  ticket  in  November. 
Mr.  John  M.  Parker,  of  Louisiana,  who  was  the  nominee 
of  the  convention  for  Vice-President,  and  a  fewr  others 
prominent  in  the  party,  campaigned  and  voted  for 
President  Wilson. 

Roosevelt  made  his  first  speech  for  Hughes  at  Lewis- 
ton,  on  August  31st,  and  thereafter  took  an  active  part 
in  his  campaign,  going  as  far  west  as  Arizona.  The 
contest  was  close,  and  the  result  was  in  doubt  for  several 
days  after  the  election.  Hughes  carried  most  of  the 
eastern  states,  but  the  southern  and  western  vote 
finally  swung  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  President. 
Whether  Roosevelt  was  surprised  at  Hughes'  defeat, 
I  can  not  say.  Most  eastern  Republicans  certainly 
expected  to  succeed,  but  Roosevelt  had  traveled  in  the 
West  during  the  campaign,  and  was  probably  more  in 
touch  with  the  sentiment  there  than  were  most  of 
Hughes'  Eastern  supporters. 

Roosevelt's  whole  record  as  President,  and  the  whole 
course  of  his  political  actions  after  leaving  the  White 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER   1912         429 

House,  as  well  as  his  speeches  and  editorials,  show 
that  his  economic,  social  and  political  point  of  view 
towards  questions  was  that  of  the  evolutionist.  He  did 
not  believe  in  revolution,  violent  or  peaceful.  He  was 
not  a  political  philosopher,  dreaming  of  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth. 

There  are  three  political  types.  One  of  these  is 
the  very  large  class  who  instinctively  oppose  change. 
These  usually  admit  many  existing  evils,  but  are  quite 
sure  that  these  evils  are  for  the  most  part  due  to  "human 
nature/'  for  which,  of  course,  no  one  is  responsible. 
At  the  other  extreme  are  those  reformers  who  look 
out  upon  the  world  and  find  it  on  the  whole  very  bad; 
who  want  to  sweep  aside,  at  one  stroke,  existing  insti 
tutions  and  basic  economic  and  social  ideas.  To  this 
class  belong  some  of  our  socialists,  and  perhaps  all  of 
the  Bolsheviki  and  other  extremists.  The  third  group 
are  those  who  have  no  desire  to  turn  the  world  upside 
down.  They  believe  that  permanent  progress  can  only 
be  secured  by  successive  orderly  changes  in  the  modern 
industrial  system  and  by  eliminating  its  injustices  one 
by  one. 

To  this  third  group  Roosevelt  belonged.  He  believed, 
without  question,  in  all  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  the  material  civilization  of  Europe  and 
America  are  based — such  as  private  property,  private 
control  of  fixed  capital,  and  private  industrial  enter 
prise.  He  refused  to  believe  that  the  extreme  conser 
vatives  and  extreme  radicals  are  right  in  their  common 
assumption  that  poverty  and  destitution  and  great 
differences  in  wealth  and  opportunity  are  inherent 
elements  of  an  industrial  society  having  these  conceptions 
of  property,  capital  and  enterprise.  He  was  a  great 


430  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

leader,  not  of  the  conservatives,  not  of  the  radicals, 
but  of  the  moderates,  the  greatest  single  force  in  the 
country  making  for  progress  along  historic  Anglo-Saxon 
lines — the  foremost  disciple  of  orderly  progress,  equally 
opposed  to  reaction  and  to  revolution. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  chief  underlying  motives  of 
Roosevelt's  political  action  are  found  in  his  desire  to 
prevent  the  Republican  party  from  becoming  the  party 
opposed  to  change.  Even  his  absorption  in  the  progress 
of  the  World  War  did  not  prevent  his  taking  every  oppor 
tunity  to  urge  the  necessity  of  meeting  dangerous  radi 
calism  by  a  frank  recognition  of  existing  evils  and  deter 
mined  efforts  for  their  correction.  An  illustration  of 
his  desire  to  awaken  conservatives  to  the  danger  of 
indifference  to  social  reform  occurred  on  a  visit  to  Phil 
adelphia  which  he  made  a  little  over  a  year  ago.  He 
was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Thomas  Robins,  who  asked  a  number 
of  persons  prominent  in  the  financial,  social  and  political 
world  to  meet  him  at  luncheon.  I  met  him  at  the  station, 
and  on  the  way  to  Mr.  Robins'  house,  he  expressed 
his  satisfaction  at  the  opportunity  which  this  would 
give  him — an  opportunity  which  he  did  not  neglect — to 
impress  the  other  guests  with  the  importance  of  meeting 
existing  social  evils  by  constructive  legislation.  As 
examples  of  minimum  reforms,  I  remember  that  he 
cited  measures  for  the  insurance  of  workmen  against 
old  age,  sickness  and  unemployment.  Again,  before 
the  luncheon,  to  a  small  group,  he  talked  for  nearly 
an  hour  on  the  danger  of  the  movement  which  we  have 
since  come  to  know  as  Bolshevism,  foretelling  with 
wonderful  accuracy  how  it  would  spread  over  Europe 
and  how  it  would  affect  the  United  States. 

The  question  is  universally  asked  whether,  had  he 


POLITICAL  CAREER  AFTER  1912         431 

lived,  he  would  have  been  the  Republican  candidate 
for  President  in  1920.  Personally,  I  believe  that  there 
is  only  one  possible  answer  to  the  question.  When 
the  time  for  the  next  Republican  Convention  came, 
there  would  have  been  an  unanimous  demand  for  his 
nomination,  which  he  ought  not,  and  would  not,  have 
declined.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  quite  certain  that 
he  would  have  been  glad  to  avoid  another  contest  for, 
the  Presidency.  The  loss  of  old  friendships  in  1912 
was  a  great  grief  to  him.  In  the  year  preceding  his 
death  these  old  friendships  had  been  renewed  and  most 
of  the  scars  of  contest  had  been  healed.  I  think  this 
era  of  good  feeling  made  him  apprehensive  of  new  broils. 
In  April,  1918,  a  friend  referred  to  the  year  1921  as  the 
year  when  he  would  again  enter  the  White  House.  He 
had  been  in  one  of  his  jocular  moods,  but  he  immediately 
became  very  serious.  "No,"  he  said,  "not  I.  I  don't 
want  it,  and  I  don't  think  I  am  the  man  to  be  nominated. 
I  made  too  many  enemies  and  the  people  are  tired  of 
my  candidacy." 

This  attitude  towards  his  own  candidacy,  however, 
did  not  mean  that  he  was  not  looking  forward  to  taking 
part  in  the  next  Presidential  contest.  Though  he  did 
not  desire,  and  perhaps  did  not  expect,  to  be  the  candidate, 
he  did  expect  to  make,  in  1920,  what  he  realized  would 
probably  be  the  last  great  effort  of  his  life.  This  effort 
would  have  been  to  unite  all  elements  of  the  Republican 
party  on  a  platform  and  on  a  man  who  would  represent 
those  fundamental  ideals  of  democratic  rule,  social 
justice,  and  foreign  policy  which,  throughout  his  life 
he  spent  himself  to  advance. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

BOOKS  AND  SPEECHES* 

ONE  of  the  great  interests  of  Roosevelt's  life  was 
his    literary    work.     He    began    this    in    college 
and  continued  it  until  his  death.     At  first  he 
directed  his  attention  most  to  historical  writing  but  as 
time  went  on  and  his  life  became  fuller  and  fuller,  the 
chronicling  of  his  own  activities  and  convictions  occupied 
him  more  and  more. 

It  was  with  history  that  he  began  his  literary  career, 
his  first  volume  being  "The  History  of  the  Naval  War 
of  1812,"  of  which  he  wrote  the  early  chapters  while 
still  in  college.  Two  years  later  the  book  was  published 
and,  unlike  most  youthful  efforts,  it  proved  to  be  on 
the  whole  a  decidedly  good  performance.  In  the  first 
place,  he  went  to  first-hand  sources  for  his  facts,  thereby 
correcting  many  mistakes  of  earlier  historians,  both 
American  and  British.  Furthermore,  despite  his  ardent 
patriotism,  he  strove  to  be  thoroughly  impartial.  He 
showed,  for  instance,  that  Perry's  fight  on  Lake  Erie 
was  by  no  means  a  triumph  against  odds;  for  though 
the  British  fleet  had  a  greater  number  of  guns,  the 
American  vessels  threw  half  again  as  much  metal  as 
did  their  adversaries.  On  the  other  hand,  he  demonstrated 
that  the  victory  of  Lake  Champlain  had  been  under 
valued.  The  maneuvering  in  every  fight  was,  for  the 


*  In  the  writing  of  this  chapter  I  have  had  the  invaluable  help  of  Mr.  C.  Wharton 
Stork,  the  author  and  critic,  and  of  Mr.  Roger  B.  Merriman,  Assistant  Professor  of 
History  at  Harvard  University. 

W.  D.  L. 

(432) 


BOOKS  AND   SPEECHES  433 

first  time,  accurately  described.  But  the  heroic  spirit 
of  adventure  was  never  lost  sight  of.  Skill  and  courage, 
whether  of  friend  or  foe,  were  made  to  stand  out  strongly 
before  the  imagination  of  the  reader. 

His  longest  and  most  painstaking  work  is  "The 
Winning  of  the  West,"  which  he  wrote  in  four  volumes 
from  1889  to  1896.  To  this  he  dedicated  his  keenest 
enthusiasm  and  his  most  thorough  research,  and  it  is 
regarded  by  many  critics  as  his  most  enduring  contri 
bution  to  literature.  It  shows  a  wholly  admirable, 
scholarly  audacity,  the  lack  of  which  is  responsible 
for  the  ridiculously  narrow  and  over-specialized  mono 
graphs  turned  out  by  some  of  our  universities  today. 
It  was  certainly  no  small  feat,  considering  the  difficulty 
of  finding  and  collecting  material  thirty  years  ago, 
to  produce  the  first  work  on  the  history  of  our  territorial 
expansion  from  1769  to  1807,  which  recognizes  the 
real  significance  of  the  great  West  in  the  development 
of  American  civilization. 

His  ranch  life  in  the  '80's,  in  spite  of  its  arduous 
toil,  left  considerable  opportunity  for  writing.  In  the 
more  exacting  years  at  Washington  as  a  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  he  found  less  time  for  literary  effort, 
but  he  did  not  abandon  it  altogether.  Indeed,  he  expected 
it  to  take  a  large  place  in  his  life,  for  he  had  definitely 
decided  by  that  time  not  to  embark  in  business  and  to 
confine  himself  to  literature  and  politics.  Other  demands 
upon  him  were  so  incessant  that  he  sometimes  grew 
despondent  in  regard  to  his  literary  future.  He  could 
not  foresee  that  the  great  public  wrork  upon  which  he 
was  so  soon  to  enter  would  add  greatly  both  to  his  power 
of  writing  and  to  the  value  of  what  he  should  write. 

He  enjoyed  his  literary  work  thoroughly  and  found 

28 


434  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

relaxation  in  it  from  the  most  pressing  public  cares. 
As  soon  as  he  returned  from  Cuba  in  1898,  he  talked 
over  the  publication  of  "The  Rough  Riders"  in  magazine 
form  with  Robert  Bridges,  the  editor  of  Scribner's. 
Shortly  thereafter  he  began  his  campaign  for  the 
Governorship,  but  neither  the  campaign  nor  his  duties 
after  he  took  office  prevented  him  from  delivering  the 
various  instalments  on  schedule  time. 

One  day  during  his  Presidency  he  sent  for  Mr. 
Bridges,  and  taking  him  into  his  library,  drew  from  a 
drawer  in  the  desk  the  complete  manuscript  of  "Outdoor 
Pastimes  of  an  American  Hunter,"  ready  for  the  printer, 
title  page  and  all.  "It  isn't  customary,"  he  said  "for 
Presidents  to  publish  a  book  during  office,  but  I  am  going 
to  publish  this  one." 

The  life  of  Oliver  Cromwell  was  also  written  amid 
heavy  responsibilities,  while  he  was  Governor  of  New 
York.  It  was  a  theme  which  must  have  stirred  his 
inmost  soul.  The  characters  of  subject  and  author 
had  so  much  in  common  that  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  Roosevelt  should  have  written  the  book.  It  shows 
less  research  than  "The  Winning  of  the  West"  or  "The 
Naval  War  of  1812;"  it  does  not  always  give  the  Royal 
ists  their  due,  and  there  are  a  number  of  minor  slips; 
but  a  deep  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  person 
alities  and  the  times  with  which  it  deals  shines  forth 
on  every  page.  Milton's  great  sonnet  to  the  Lord- 
General  is  the  only  preface. 

Roosevelt's  historical  works  form  the  best  possible 
antidote  to  the  views  of  the  deterministic  school,  who 
would  eliminate  human  character,  passions,  and  ambi 
tions  as  a  motive  force  in  the  development  of  the  world. 
History  for  him  was  first  and  foremost  a  story,  in  which 


BOOKS  AND  SPEECHES  435 

the  man  was  always  the  principal  factor,  the  primary 
interest.  This  quality,  which  gave  such  vitality  to  his 
writings,  inevitably  tinged  them  also  with  partisanship;  so 
clearly  and  forcibly  did  the  side  that  appealed  to  him  pre 
sent  itself  to  his  mind  that  he  sometimes  failed  to  appre 
ciate  the  other.  Certainly  he  was  not  always  judicial, 
And  yet  the  very  fact  that  bias  was  so  obvious  made 
the  defect,  comparatively  speaking,  harmless.  The 
sort  of  historical  partisanship  which  is  really  dangerous 
is  that  which  masquerades  under  the  guise  of  impar 
tiality;  but  one  could  see  at  a  glance  where  Roosevelt's 
sympathies  lay,  and  could  make  one's  reservations 
accordingly. 

The  majority  of  his  casual  readers  would  probably 
accuse  him  of  "making  the  great  lines  of  the  past  con 
verge  upon  the  point  of  view  which  the  mentality  of 
the  moment  imposes,"  as  the  modern  German  historian 
has  so  often  done.  Their  penciled  comments  in  the 
margins  of  the  public  library  copies  of  his  different 
works  show  plainly  that  his  own  political  career  was 
ever  uppermost  in  their  minds.  It  is  not  possible  to  hold 
him  guiltless  of  this  charge.  When  he  was  dealing  with 
a  great  historical  figure  whose  life  had  stood  for  the 
ideals  he  had  lived  for  and  loved,  unhistorical  parallels 
were  bound  to  occur  to  him.  But  the  wonder  really  is 
that  he  stopped  where  he  did.  Often  there  is  a  suggestion, 
very  rarely  anything  more;  and,  in  view  of  the  variety 
and  intensity  of  his  political  activities,  his  restraint 
in  this  particular  is  worthy  of  high  praise. 

He  usually  dictated  his  magazine  articles  and  books 
and  then  thoroughly  revised  the  typewritten  copy. 
He  could  carry  an  enormous  amount  of  detail  accurately 
in  his  head.  When  he  was  writing  a  book  he  would 


436  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

furnish  himself  with  all  the  necessary,  facts  and  references 
and  then  with  a  pad  of  memoranda  before  him  begin 
to  dictate  quite  rapidly  and  with  remarkable  accuracy. 

Colonel  W.  H.  Crooks  speaks  of  the  extraordinary 
facility  with  which  he  dictated.  On  one  occasion,  while 
he  was  in  the  White  House,  he  had  read  a  rather  heavy 
historical  work  of  considerable  length.  Calling  in  his 
stenographer  he  began  to  write  a  letter  of  criticism 
to  the  author  of  the  book,  and  continued  without  pause 
for  two  hours.  When  the  exhausted  stenographer  emerged 
from  his  office  he  was  replaced  by  another  to  whom  the 
President  immediately  began  to  dictate  a  manuscript 
dealing  with  important  political  matters. 

Roosevelt's  books  of  adventure  describing  his  hunting 
and  exploring  trips  in  the  WTest  and  in  South  America 
and  Africa,  are  first-class  works  of  their  kind.  Always 
careful  of  the  truth,  he  had  an  eye  for  beauty  and  for 
adventure  which  enabled  him  to  make  these  books 
not  only  readable,  but  in  many  places  absorbing.  He 
was  often  accused  of  being  an  egotist  but  in  these  stories 
he  shows  the  modesty  of  the  real  sportsman,  leaving 
facts  to  speak  for  themselves.  This  they  do  most  effect 
ively.  The  man  who  kills  a  cougar  with  a  hunting  knife, 
who  shoots  a  grizzly  at  such  short  range  that  it  comes 
within  striking  distance  of  him,  has  small  need  of  a 
medal  for  bravery.  Nor  do  we  fail  to  get  the  fine  Anglo- 
Saxon  spirit  of  fellowship  in  danger.  The  author's 
companions,  even  the  dogs,  are  characterized  with 
affection.  The  reader  finally  comes  to  share  the  hunter's 
fondness  for  a  favorite  Springfield  rifle.  The  adventures 
are  thrilling  in  themselves,  and  doubly  so  from  the 
character  of  the  narrator. 

"African  Game  Trails,"  which  is  probably  the  greatest 


BOOKS   AND   SPEECHES  437 

of  his  hunting  books,  was  written  by  his  own  hand 
word  for  word,  in  the  depths  of  the  Dark  Continent. 
No  matter  how  severe  the  day's  work  had  been  he  sat 
on  a  camp  stool  every  evening  writing  out  the  story 
of  the  day's  events.  As  each  chapter  of  the  narrative 
was  completed  it  was  sent  by  runners  from  the  heart 
of  Africa  to  be  dispatched  to  his  publishers  in  America. 

In  his  later  years  his  style  developed  possibilities 
unsuspected  in  his  earlier  \vorks.  In  "The  Naval  War 
of  1812,"  and  even  in  "The  Winning  of  the  West," 
the  words  did  not  always  seem  to  come  to  him  when 
he  wanted  them.  At  times  the  reader  is  conscious  of  a 
great  pent-up  force  of  feeling  and  enthusiasm,  striving 
vainly  to  burst  the  bonds  that  prevented  its  expression. 
But  in  the  course  of  the  next  twenty  years  his  vocabulary 
increased  apace.  His  epithets  became  the  despair  of 
his  political  foes,  and  passages  of  unusual  and  peculiar 
eloquence  appeared  with  increasing  frequency  in  his 
speeches  and  in  his  wrri tings.  It  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  in  his  works  such  striking  and  eloquent  passages 
as  this,  which  occurred  in  his  address  on  "History  as 
Literature,"  delivered  before  the  American  Historical 
Association  at  Boston,  in  December  1912. 

"The  true  historian  will  bring  the  past  before  our 
eyes,  as  if  it  were  the  present.  He  will  make  us  see  as 
living  men  the  hard-faced  archers  of  Agincourt,  and  the 
war-worn  spearmen  who  followed  Alexander  down  beyond 
the  rim  of  the  known  world.  We  shall  hear  grate  on  the 
coast  of  Britain  the  keels  of  the  Low-Dutch  sea-thieves 
whose  children's  children  were  to  inherit  unknown 
continents.  We  shall  thrill  to  the  triumphs  of  Hannibal. 
Gorgeous  in  our  sight  will  rise  the  splendor  of  dead  cities, 
and  the  might  of  the  elder  empires  of  which  the  very 


438  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

ruins  crumbled  to  dust  ages  ago.  AJong  ancient  trade- 
routes,  across  the  world's  waste  spaces,  the  caravans 
shall  move;  and  the  admirals  of  uncharted  seas  shall 
furrow  the  oceans  with  their  lonely  prows.  Beyond 
the  dim  centuries  we  shall  see  the  banners  float  above 
armed  hosts.  We  shall  see  conquerors  riding  forward 
to  victories  that  have  changed  the  course  of  time.  We 
shall  listen  to  the  prophecies  of  forgotten  seers.  Ours 
shall  be.  the  dreams  of  dreamers  who  dreamed  greatly, 
who  saw  in  their  vision  peaks  so  lofty  that  never  yet 
have  they  been  reached  by  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  men." 

He  has  enriched  the  language  with  striking  words 
and  phrases  which  we  of  this  generation  will  not  forget. 
Some  of  these  were  his  own;  others  he  made  his  own 
and  associated  irrevocably  with  himself.  The  "square 
deal,"  "race  suicide,"  "malefactors  of  great,  wealth," 
the  ''big  stick;"  who  does  not  think  of  Roosevelt  when 
he  hears  these  expressions  used? 

For  more  than  seventeen  years  the  American  people 
were  accustomed  to  read  his  words  and  to  express  with 
them  their  own  thoughts.  The  Man  with  a  Muck-rake 
is  as  old  as  Pilgrim's  Progress,  but  it  was  Roosevelt 
who  put  "muck-raking"  into  our  every-day  vocabulary. 
"Pussy-footing"  is  also  his.  When  a  political  friend 
sounded  him  about  his  candidacy  for  the  Republican 
nomination  in  1916,  he  answered:  "Don't  you  do  it  if 
you  expect  me  to  pussy -foot  on  any  single  issue  I  have 
raised."  We  all  know  what  "weasel  words"  are  since 
he  thus  characterized  the  phrase  "universal,  voluntary, 
military  training,"  explaining  that  "voluntary,"  like 
a  weasel,  sucked  the  strength  from  the  "universal." 

Immediately  after  he  left  the  White  House  in  1909 


BOOKS  AND   SPEECHES  439 

he  became  a  contributing  editor  of  the  Outlook  and 
continued  that  connection  for  more  than  five  years, 
until  July  3,  1914.  During  that  time  he  wrote  exten 
sively,  and  his  articles  and  editorials  form  a  valuable 
body  of  comment  on  current  political  problems  and  social 
conditions.  During  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was  an 
associate  editor  of  the  Metropolitan  Magazine  and  through 
its  columns  carried  on  a  large  part  of  his  campaign  for 
preparedness  and  for  a  whole-hearted  prosecution  of 
the  war. 

He  was  an  omnivorous  reader  and  devoured  an 
enormous  quantity  of  books.  This  was  partly  because 
he  never  wasted  a  minute  during  the  day,  and  was 
usually  reading  unless  he  was  engaged  in  work,  con 
versation,  or  exercise,  and  partly  because  he  had  the 
remarkable  faculty  of  reading  by  paragraphs .  The  ordinary 
man  reads  along  word  for  word  or,  at  the  most,  sentence 
by  sentence,  but  Roosevelt  seemed  to  grasp  the  substance 
of  an  entire  paragraph  by  a  rapid  survey  of  it,  and  not 
only  to  grasp  its  substance,  but  to  have  phrases  and  even 
sentences  fixed  in  his  memory.  In  all  my  life  I  have 
only  seen  one  other  man  who  had  the  same  gift. 

Roosevelt  was  not  a  newspaper  reader.  He  glanced 
over  the  newspaper  and  quickly  absorbed  any  news 
which  was  of  real  interest  to  him.  He  would  pass  over 
the  account  of  a  murder  or  of  a  society  scandal  without 
so  much  as  seeing  it,  and  his  eye  would  travel  straight 
to  the  heart  of  whatever  he  considered  really  vital. 

His  reading  was  almost  entirely  of  books  and  to 
some  extent  of  magazine  articles.  He  had  a  compre 
hensive  big-game  library  at  Sagamore  Hill  and  gave 
much  time  and  thought  to  the  reading  of  books  on 
natural  history.  He  was  very  fond  of  history,  English, 


440  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

French,  Greek,  Latin,  indeed  of  any  nationality.  At 
one  of  the  most  strenuous  periods  of  his  Presidential 
career,  he  suddenly  became  immersed  in  the  history  of 
Tamerlane.  An  important  matter  of  foreign  policy 
did  not  go  forward  with  the  speed  which  a  certain  member 
of  his  Cabinet  desired.  Some  one  pleaded  as  an  excuse 
the  pressure  of  internal  affairs.  "No,  no,"  came  the 
impatient  Secretary's  reply.  "It's  not  that,  it's  those 
damned  Mongols." 

He  never  had  an  idle  moment.  There  was  always 
a  book  by  his  side  to  which  he  could  turn  even  though 
the  interval  for  reading  was  only  two  or  three  minutes. 
On  the  trip  through  the  Brazilian  wilderness  he  carried 
Gibbon's  History  with  him,  and  as  soon  as  he  reached 
the  camping  spot  in  the  evening,  would  take  shelter 
from  the  rain  beneath  a  tree  and  plunge  into  the  book. 
While  he  read  he  was  totally  immersed  in  his  book  and 
totally  oblivious  of  everything  else.  This  power  of 
concentration  was  no  doubt  largely  responsible  for 
the  fact  that  he  remembered  the  subject-matter  of  his 
reading  so  accurately. 

During  the  Republican  Convention  of  1912,  at 
Chicago,  I  suddenly  found  it  necessary  to  confer  with 
Roosevelt,  whose  headquarters  were  at  the  very  end 
of  the  Congress  Hotel  from  the  room  in  which  my  com 
mittee  was  sitting.  It  is  a  large  hotel  and  the  corridors 
and  stairway  wrere  as  usual  jammed  with  an  excited 
mass  of  humanity,  shouting,  "We  want  Teddy!"  Early 
football  training  was  instinctively  recalled,  and  after 
some  twenty  minutes'  struggle  I  succeeded  in  reaching 
his  headquarters  and  passed  through  the  anterooms  to 
his  private  room.  The  roar  of  the  great  crowd,  through 
which  I  had  pushed  my  way,  and  of  the  far  greater 


BOOKS  AND  SPEECHES  441 

crowd  in  the  streets,  together  with  the  discordant  tones 
of  half  a  dozen  bands,  filled  the  room.  The  Colonel  was 
alone.  He  sat  in  a  rocking-chair,  reading.  As  I  came  in 
he  looked  up  quietly  and  I  saw  that  the  book  which  he 
held  in  his  hand  was  Herodotus,  the  Greek  historian. 

He  had  an  extraordinary  ability  to  relax  under  the 
most  unfavorable  conditions,  and  the  relaxation  usually 
took  the  form  of  reading.  During  the  campaign  in 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  fall  of  1914,  he  toured  the  state 
for  several  days  in  behalf  of  the  Progressive  candidate 
for  United  States  Senator,  Gifford  Pinchot,  and  on 
behalf  of  the  Democratic-Progressive  candidate  for 
Governor,  Vance  McCormick.  It  will  be  remembered 
that,  at  the  time,  he  had  only  recently  returned  from 
South  America,  and  was  far  from  being  in  his  usual 
health.  It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  passed 
through  the  experience,  that  nothing  is  more  taxing 
to  the  strength  than  a  campaign  tour. 

On  this  particular  trip,  Colonel  Roosevelt  entered 
the  state  at  Easton,  his  first  speech  being  made  from  the 
rear  platform  of  the  train  at  that  place.  His  voice  was 
far  from  strong,  and  his  whole  appearance  was  that  of  a 
man  thoroughly  tired.  A  few  days  later,  when  he  left 
the  state,  after  speaking  many  times  each  day  from 
the  train  at  various  stations,  besides  long  noon  and 
longer  evening  addresses  in  public  squares  and  halls, 
his  voice  was  strong  and  his  whole  physical  aspect  was 
changed  and  improved.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  cam 
paign  had  rested  him.  He  had  come  from  a  trying 
political  situation  in  New  York,  and  the  hearty  personal 
welcome  he  received  in  all  parts  of  Pennsylvania  gratified 
and  stimulated  him. 

Besides  this,  he  had   actually  had   a  great  deal  of 


442  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rest.  He  had  a  stateroom  in  the  rear  car,  and,  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  time,  when  not  meeting  delegates 
or  speaking,  he  rested  in  this  stateroom.  As  was  his 
custom,  he  had  brought  with  him  a  book  having  nothing 
to  do  with  politics.  On  this  occasion  it  was  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  "Anne  of  Geierstein,"  a  novel  which  he  confessed 
he  found  very  disappointing,  and  for  this  reason  the 
rest  on  his  bed  in  the  stateroom  between  speeches  often 
took  the  form  of  a  short  doze. 

The  train  would  stop  at  a  station.  Great  mobs 
of  cheering  people,  sometimes  numbering  thousands, 
crowding  the  station  platform,  would  swarm  over  the 
tracks  at  the  rear  of  the  train.  A  local  delegation  would 
be  admitted  at  the  forward  end  of  his  car,  while  some 
member  of  our  party  would  at  once  begin  talking  from 
the  rear  platform  to  the  people  outside  who  were  impa 
tient  to  hear  "Teddy." 

It  was  occasionally  my  duty  to  shepherd  the  dele 
gation  past  Colonel  Roosevelt's  stateroom  in  order 
that  each  one  might  see  him  personally.  There  was  an 
element  of  humor  in  his  quick  transition  from  a  sleepy 
reader  of  medieval  story  to  a  political  leader  greeting 
friends  and  admirers.  For  every  guest  he  had  a  vigorous 
handshake  and  a  hearty  word  of  greeting  as  each  passed 
the  stateroom  door.  The  delegation  received,  he  would 
push  his  way  vigorously  through  the  crowd  jammed 
in  the  small  rear  drawing-room  of  the  car,  and  out  on 
the  platform.  A  three-minute  talk  in  characteristic 
style,  usually  cut  short  by  the  train's  pulling  out  of 
the  station,  a  wave  of  his  hand,  a  great  shout  from  the 
assembled  crowd,  and  half  a  minute  later  a  rather  sleepy 
gentleman  was  lying  on  the  bed  in  his  stateroom,  reading 
"Anne  of  Geierstein." 


BOOKS  AND   SPEECHES  443 

He  was  not  only  fond  of  history  but  of  more  abstruse 
subjects.  Darwin,  Huxley,  Carlyle  and  Emerson  were 
among  his  favorites.  But  he  believed  that  the  great 
need  to  be  met  by  reading  was  the  need  of  knowing 
human  nature  and  that  this  could  corne  only  through 
reading  the  great  imaginative  writers,  whether  of  prose 
or  of  poetry.  For  this  reason  he  loved  novels,  poems, 
ballads  and  simple  epics.  He  never  did  enjoy  dramas 
and  humbly  acknowledged  his  failure  in  that  respect, 
but  his  taste  was  otherwise  so  catholic  that  he  can  be 
forgiven  a  distaste  for  one  form  of  literature. 

The  secret  of  his  success  as  a  public  speaker  lay 
in  the  charm  and  power  of  his  personality,  his  keen 
appreciation  of  the  temper  of  his  audience,  and,  above 
all,  in  the  fact  that  he  never  consented  to  make  an 
address  unless  he  had  something  he  wanted  to  say. 
He  was  always  vitally  interested  in  getting  his  hearers 
to  see  the  truth  as  he  saw  it,  and  to  take  a  definite  course 
of  action. 

His  preparation  for  a  speech  was  always  thorough, 
and  for  any  occasion  of  importance,  what  he  had  to  say 
was  prepared,  usually,  several  days  beforehand,  and 
always  in  time  to  have  it  sent  to  the  newspapers  of  the 
country  for  simultaneous  publication  at  the  time  of  its 
delivery.  In  preparing  addresses,  especially  political 
addresses  or  statements,  he  usually  invited  those  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  him  and  whose  criticisms  and 
suggestions  he  desired  to  secure,  to  hear  what  he  dictated 
as  he  dictated  it,  or  to  talk  over  with  him  a  typewritten 
draft.  For  the  many  who  at  different  times  were  thus 
called,  it  was  always  a  delightful  experience. 

I  well  remember  the  first  time  he  ever  sent  for  me. 
It  was  in  connection  with  the  address  which  he  made  in 


444  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

New  York  City,  in  Carnegie  Hall,. on  the  20th  day  of 
March,  1912.  I  arrived  at  Sagamore  Hill  at  dusk,  during 
the  first  windy  mutterings  of  a  storm  which  later  blew 
down  trees  and  deluged  with  rain  the  entire  countryside. 
The  unlit  hall  was  as  dark  as  a  pocket,  and  I  did  not 
realize  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  beside  me  until 
I  heard  his  quiet  greeting,  "I  am  very  glad  to  see  you, 
Dean." 

Together  with  a  member  of  the  New  York  Bar  who 
had  also  been  invited,  we  adjourned  to  the  library. 
The  afternoon  tea  came  quickly,  and  for  an  hour  the 
conversation  turned  on  anything  and  everything  except 
politics  and  the  object  which  had  brought  us  to  Oyster 
Bay.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  the  other  members  of  the 
family  being  away,  the  Colonel  was  alone,  but  we  all 
dressed  for  dinner,  that  being  the  invariable  custom 
of  the  house. 

After  dinner,  the  Colonel  having  disposed  of  a  group 
of  reporters  then  resident  in  the  village,  who  had  come 
out  for  their  daily  statement  concerning  matters  affecting 
his  campaign  for  the  Republican  nomination,  we 
adjourned  to  his  low-ceilinged  study  on  the  right-hand 
of  the  hallway  as  one  entered  the  house.  On  opposite 
sides  of  this  room  were  the  Colonel's  desk  near  the 
window  and  an  oil  painting  of  his  father  upon  the  wall. 

We  found  that  the  speech  was  already  in  manuscript 
form.  I  think  the  copy  we  used  was  the  second  or  third 
revision.  At  any  rate,  the  Colonel  himself  had  already 
made  numerous  corrections  in  pencil. 

It  is  the  experience  of  most  persons  called  in  by 
authors  to  criticise  their  manuscript  that  the  real  object 
for  which  they  have  been  summoned  is  not  to  criticise, 
but  to  give  the  author  the  pleasure  of  hearing  himself 


BOOKS  AND   SPEECHES  445 

read  what  he  has  written,  the  function  of  the  supposed 
critics  being  usually  akin  to  that  of  the  claqueur  at  the 
theater.  But  no  one  ever  had  this  experience  with 
Colonel  Roosevelt.  When  the  Colonel  asked  you  to 
criticise,  he  meant  what  he  said,  and  no  author  ever 
took  criticisms  and  suggestions  more  freely.  But  to  this 
amenability  to  criticism  there  was  one  important  lim 
itation.  You  could  not  help  him  unless  you  thoroughly 
understood  the  main  things  he  had  determined  to  say, 
and  why  he  had  determined  to  say  them.  He  did  not 
want  you  to  debate  with  him  the  wisdom  of  these  funda 
mental  things.  He  would  refuse  to  debate  them.  What 
he  wanted  was  not  to  be  told  what  to  say,  but  to  be 
helped  how  to  say  it. 

With  this  limitation,  my  experience  was  that  he 
accepted  criticism  too  readily.  Often  after  the  prelim 
inary  draft  of  an  address  or  statement  had  been  submitted 
to  a  group,  I  felt  that  his  almost  too  ready  acceptance 
of  suggestions  and  criticisms  had,  in  many  instances, 
failed  to  improve  the  production  as  a  whole.  This  will 
ingness  to  accept  criticism  and  take  suggestions  caused 
me,  I  remember,  much  difficulty  on  this  particular 
evening.  I  liked  the  address  as  he  had  written  it,  and 
had  only  a  few  suggestions  to  make.  The  lawyer  from 
New  York,  on  the  other  hand,  wanted  a  considerable 
number  of  modifications,  and  I  soon  found  myself, 
as  on  other  occasions,  contending  for  the  forms  of  expres 
sions  originally  used. 

He  read  the  typewritten  sheets  aloud,  not  minding 
the  least  if  one  or  the  other  of  us  interrupted  him  before 
he  had  completed  a  single  sentence.  When,  some  time 
after  twelve  o'clock,  we  had  apparently  reached  the 
end,  he  said:  "I  shall  have  to  sit  up  and  go  over  this 


446  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

again  tonight,  because  it  must  go^  to  the  newspapers 
tomorrow  to  insure  its  publication  on  the  morning 
after  I  make  the  address.  But  before  you  go  to  bed  I 
should  like  to  read  you  a  concluding  paragraph  which 
I  have  written.  This  is  what  I  feel  I  want  to  say." 

From  the  drawer  of  the  dpk  he  took  several  soiled 
pieces  of  gray  tissue  manuscript,  on  which  he  had  written 
in  pencil.  The  light  from  the  single  lamp  shone  on  the 
desk  and  was  reflected  on  his  face,  the  rest  of  the  room 
was  dark  save  for  the  fitful  light  from  a  dying  fire,  out 
side  the  fierce  storm  lashed  against  the  windows,  as  he 
read  to  us  the  final  paragraph  of  this — one  of  the  greatest 
of  his  speeches — a  paragraph  which,  when  delivered 
a  few  nights  later,  brought  a  vast  audience  to  its  feet, 
and  when  published  stirred  the  hearts  of  millions  of 
his  fellow  countrymen. 

They  were  great  words,  and  praise  would  have  belittled 
them.  When  his  voice  ceased  we  rose  and,  with  a  simple 
good-bye,  left  him  and  passed  out  into  the  night. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE  HILL 

ROOSEVELT'S  family  life  was  as  intense  as  his 
public  life.  His  wife  and  children  and  home 
were  next  to  his  heart,  together  with  his  country. 
He  believed  that  the  strength  of  the  nation  lay  in  the 
tenderness  and  in  the  fine  love  of  American  parents  and 
children  for  one  another,  and  in  his  own  life  he  practiced 
his  belief. 

Unlike  many  public  men,  his  home  was  not  only  a 
place  for  rest  and  recreation;  it  was  his  workshop  too. 
In  it  were  gathered  all  those  whom  he  loved  best,  and 
in  it  his  greatest  labor  was  performed.  Most  men  have 
one  place  for  home  and  another  for  work,  but  he  was 
able  to  bring  both  beneath  a  single  roof.  This  wras  of 
course  true  while  he  wras  at  the  White  House.  It  was 
true,  too,  of  his  later  years  at  his  home  at  Sagamore 
Hill.  True,  he  had  an  office  in  the  city,  at  first  with  the 
Outlook- — afterwards  with  the  Metropolitan,  and  during 
the  last  six  months  with  the  New  York  office  of  the 
Kansas  City  Star,  and  he  went  to  town  one  or  more  days 
a  week,  depending  on  the  work  that  for  the  time  engaged 
his  attention.  He  attended  to  considerable  corre 
spondence,  did  some  work  and  saw  many  people,  both 
for  their  convenience  and  his  own,  at  his  office,  but, 
nevertheless,  his  home  remained  the  center  of  his  working 
life  as  well  as  the  center  of  his  family  life. 

The  daily  routine  at  Sagamore  Hill  was  regulated  by 
the  owner's  habits  of  work.  Breakfast  was  not  always 

(447) 


448  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

an  early  meal,  as  Roosevelt  often  worked  late,  sometimes 
until  after  midnight.  On  the  night  I  went  over  his 
Carnegie  Hall  speech  with  him,  I  left  him  at  one  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  but  he  remained  at  his  desk  until  four, 
going  over  the  manuscript.  In  the  morning  he  might 
take  a  hard  canter,  a  good  walk  or  chop  wood  for  an 
hour  or  more,  but  more  often,  breakfast  over,  he  would 
plunge  into  his  correspondence.  The  fact  that  at  the 
White  House  he  could  keep  abreast  of  his  letters  so 
that  each  one  was  replied  to  on  the  day  of  its  receipt  was 
sufficiently  wonderful,  but  it  was  still  more  extraordinary 
that  as  a  private  citizen  with  necessarily  less  absolute 
command  of  his  time  than  when  he  was  President  and 
without  unlimited  clerical  resources,  with  all  the  \vork 
that  the  did,  he  could  keep  abreast,  day  by  day,  with 
his  enormous  correspondence. 

Unless  the  day  had  been  reserved  for  some  family 
expedition  or  for  some  particular  or  serious  piece  of  work, 
about  10:30  the  guests  began  to  arrive.  These  always 
came  by  appointment.  No  public  man  has  ever  been 
more  insistent  upon  and  has  more  successfully  main 
tained  his  own  and  his  family's  right  of  privacy.  When 
he  was  in  the  White  House,  as  we  have  seen,  there  were 
hours  when  practically  any  American  citizen  could  call 
on  him  and  he  would  interrupt  his  morning's  work  to 
shake  by  the  hand  dozens  of  persons  who  merely  came 
to  see  the  President.  But  Sagamore  Hill  was  not  the 
White  House.  It  was  the  home  of  a  private  citizen,  and 
curiosity  seekers  were  not  encouraged.  Even  his  intimate 
friends,  respecting  the  conditions  arising  out  of  the  many 
claims  upon  his  time,  rarely  came  to  Oyster  Bay  without 
by  note  or  telephone  giving  him  an  opportunity  to  arrange 
an  hour  convenient  to  him. 


LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE   HILL  449 

But  those  who  did  come  by  appointment  were  not  few. 
In  the  course  of  a  single  year  their  numbers  ran  into  the 
hundreds  and  their  occupations  were  just  as  varied  as  the 
interests  of  the  man  they  came  to  see.  :eYou  certainly 
meet  all  sorts  of  people  at  Cousin  Theodore's,"  said  one 
of  his  younger  relatives.  This  remark,  I  think,  probably 
represents  the  attitude  of  most  of  his  guests  towards  their 
fellow  guests.  Each  saw  people  he  was  not  apt  to  meet 
anywhere  else.  The  guests  were  not  always  glad  to  see 
each  other.  Often  two  or  more  wrould  come,  each  filled 
with  his  own  errand,  and  wanting  much  of  his  host's 
time.  As  the  trains  do  not  run  every  few  minutes  from 
New  York  to  Oyster  Bay,  and  as  all  who  wanted  to  see 
him  could  not  come  out  from  the  city  by  automobile,  it 
not  infrequently  happened  that  several  persons  were 
given  an  appointment  at  the  same  hour  and  arrived 
on  the  same  train.  I  have  more  than  once  been  amused 
at  the  expression  of  annoyance  unconsciously  manifested 
on  the  face  of  a  guest  who,  on  arriving  at  the  station  at 
Oyster  Bay,  found  three  or  more  others  bound  for  Saga 
more  Hill.  Their  efforts  to  be  polite,  or,  if  known  to  each 
other,  to  simulate  cordiality,  were  painful  to  them  and 
entertaining  to  the  onlooker.  The  morning  batch  of 
guests  seen  and  their  business  attended  to,  the  hour  of 
luncheon  would  usually  bring  still  others. 

A  luncheon  at  Sagamore  Hill  might  contain  as  varied 
an  assortment  of  guests  as  at  the  White  House,  when 
he  was  President,  but  by  three  o'clock  or  shortly  after 
the  guests  were  usually  gone. 

The  next  two  hours  were  devoted  to  Mrs.  Roosevelt. 
They  would  walk  or  ride  or  row  together.  All  his 
appointments  were  arranged  to  keep  these  hours  open. 
Absolutely  congenial  in  their  tastes;  dependent  on  each 

29 


450  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

other,  neither  was  dependent  on  people.  They  loved 
to  go  off  alone  together. 

This  lack  of  dependence  on  people  was  one  of  Roose 
velt's  marked  traits  which  affected  all  the  arrangements 
and  the  conduct  of  his  home.  He  liked  to  meet  interest 
ing  people.  He  had  literally  hundreds  of  warm  personal 
friends.  He  was  full  of  humor,  loved  to  tell  and  hear 
good  stories  and,  most  of  all,  loved  to  exchange  ideas  with 
persons  who  sympathized  with  his  own  view-point 
towards  the  subject  under  discussion.  But  to  spend  an 
entire  day  talking,  even  with  his  friends,  was  for  him 
impossible.  The  newspapers  never  had  occasion  to 
inform  the  American  people  that  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  had  gone  to  Palm  Beach  or  other  popular 
resort  for  a  few  days'  or  weeks"  rest.  He  once  said  to 
me,  referring  to  a  mutual  friend,  "His  idea  of  rest  is  to 
go  to  a  seaside  resort  and  sit  all  day  among  a  crowd 
of  people  on  the  hotel  piazza.  I  can  not  understand  it." 
Such  a  rest  would  have  been  torture  to  him.  His  relaxa 
tion  was  to  go  with  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  alone,  or  with  the 
children  on  an  all-day  row  or  ride  and  picnic.  The 
country  around  Sagamore  Hill  and  the  shores  of  the 
bay  and  sound  afforded  hundreds  of  interesting  objective 
points  for  such  expeditions. 

The  walk  or  the  ride  over,  there  was  tea  in  the  famous 
North  Room,  to  which  came  all  the  members  of  the  family 
and  their  guests;  also,  not  infrequently,  those  who  came 
from  New  York  to  dine  or  spend  the  night. 

After  he  became  President,  he  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
never  went  out  to  dinner  except  to  his  cousin's,  Mr.  W. 
Emlen  Roosevelt,  who  owns  the  adjoining  place.  Indeed, 
the  only  place  of  assembly  that  he  habitually  frequented 
was  his  Lodge.  The  members  were  the  village  people— 


LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE   HILL  451 

the  storekeepers,  gardeners,  superintendents  of  the  coun 
try  places.  Here  he  had  an  opportunity  to  study  the 
hopes,  trials,  needs  and  the  aspirations  of  the  people. 
He  therefore  grew  to  know  the  life  and  the  point  of  view 
of  all  classes  in  the  little  village,  and  many  of  his  ideas  on 
the  improvement  of  country  life  came  from  this  first 
hand  and  intimate  knowledge.  If  he  seldom  went  to 
see  his  neighbors,  they  came  tb  see  him.  He  was  an 
adviser  of  the  entire  community.  The  smallest  child, 
the  mother,  the  head  of  the  family,  the  worker,  all 
came  to  him  with  their  troubles  and  their  problems,  and 
never  found  him  too  busy  to  take  a  real  interest  and 
give  them  such  help  and  advice  as  he  could. 

On  Sunday  afternoons,  when  his  children  were  young, 
he  would  take  them  walking,  and  with  them  also  would 
go  the  cousins  who  lived  in  the  neighboring  houses.  At 
one  time  there  were  as  many  as  sixteen  children,  alto 
gether.  Roosevelt  loved  children,  and  they  adored  him. 
When  I  asked  Mrs.  Langdon  Warner,  one  of  the  sixteen 
now  grown  up,  with  children  of  her  own,  what  most 
attracted  her,  as  a  child,  to  her  cousin,  she  said:  "He 
was  always  perfectly  just  and  fair.  He  had  no  favorites 
and  as  few  rules  as  possible.  On  these  walks  we  would 
race  and  wade  and  climb.  We  children,  however,  were 
expected,  within  reason,  to  protect  ourselves.  If  there 
was  a  slip  in  climbing  a  tree  because  both  hands  were  not 
used,  home  we  went.  Hands  were  made  to  be  used,  and 
a  child  must  learn  how  to  use  them.  If  we  waded  in  a 
brook  and  fell,  home  we  went  again.  In  this  way  we 
learned  how  to  take  care  of  ourselves,  and  we  never 
regarded  the  punishment  which  was  the  consequence 
of  our  clumsiness  as  unfair." 

Occasionally  there  would  be  point-to-point  walks  with 


452  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

the  children,  like  his  walks  with  the  grown-ups  along 
Rock  Creek  in  Washington.  A  distant  point  would  be 
selected  and  he  and  the  other  children  would  make  a 
bee-line  for  it,  swimming  ponds,  wading  brooks,  scram 
bling  up  rocks  and  pushing  through  bushes  until  the  object 
was  reached.  On  one  of  these  occasions,  when  one  of  the 
cousins  returned  home  with  wet,  mud-covered  and  torn 
dress,  her  mother  meted  out  punishment.  On  the  child's 
protesting  that  "Cousin  Theodore  took  them,"  the  indig 
nant  mother  replied,  "I  don't  care.  You  must  not  be  a 
fool,  even  if  your  Cousin  Theodore  sets  you  the  example." 

This  love  for  children  never  flagged.  Had  he  lived, 
no  doubt  his  grandchildren,  when  old  enough,  would 
have  taken  point-to-point  walks  with  their  grandfather. 
"The  first  time  he  came  to  breakfast  with  me,"  writes 
Mr.  Thomas  Robins,  "my  small  boy  was  brought  into 
the  hall  to  see  him.  A  gathering  of  prominent  men  was 
awaiting  him  in  the  drawing-room.  I  had  come  in  with 
the  Colonel  and  was  taking  off  my  overcoat  while  he 
spoke  to  the  child.  Suddenly,  to  my  surprise,  I  saw 
the  boy  and  the  Colonel  streaking  up  the  first  flight, 
evidently  bound  for  the  nursery.  I  puffed  after  them 
and  when  I  reached  the  third  floor,  found  the  Colonel  and 
the  boy,  side  by  side,  stretched  out  on  the  floor,  partici 
pating  in  the  operation  of  a  miniature  electric  railway. 
'That's  right,  Tommy,  safety  first,'  he  was  saying 
to  the  child  as  I  entered. 

"The  two  boys  were  working  the  toy  together  and 
were  equally  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  a  goodly  company 
was  waiting  below7  to  meet  the  greatest  man  of  the  age. 
That  child  always  spoke  of  the  Colonel  afterward  as 
my  friend. 

"He  loved  everything  that  associated  him  with  youth, 


LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE  HILL  453 

everything  that  kept  him  young.  Soon  after  he  came 
back  from  South  America,  I  made  a  short  journey  with 
him.  He  had  not  got  over  his  jungle  fever  and  was 
having  a  bout  with  temperature  every  afternoon.  I 
ventured  a  retrospective  remonstrance. 

'What  on  earth,  Colonel,  has  a  man  of  your  age  to 
do  with  explorations,  anyway?" 

'Youth  will  be  served,  Tom,'  was  his  answer.     'It 
was  my  last  chance  to  be  a  boy." 

Roosevelt  was  happy  in  owning  a  home  which  was 
peculiarly  adapted  to  enable  him  to  lead  the  kind  of 
life  as  a  private  citizen  for  which  he  was  best  suited. 
It  was  near  enough  to  New  York  to  enable  hjni  to  reach 
that  city  in  less  than  two  hours  by  train  or  automobile. 
He  could  therefore  go  to  town  without  spending  the 
night,  and  people  could  come  to  see  him  and  return  during 
the  morning  or  afternoon.  Yet  Oyster  Bay  was  far 
enough  out  of  New  York  and  away  from  any  line  of 
travel  to  discourage  anyone  from  calling  upon  him  who 
was  not  willing  to  make  a  special  and  considerable 
effort.  Though  that  part  of  the  shore  of  Long  Island 
Sound  is  taken  up  by  places  of  the  well-to-do,  his  home 
was  not  in  the  suburbs — it  was  thoroughly  in  the  country, 
and  all  Roosevelt's  pleasures  were  of  the  kind  that 
needed  fields  and  woods  and  open  spaces.  In  his  "Auto 
biography"  he  tells  us,  "At  Sagamore  Hill  we  love  a 
great  many  things — birds  and  trees  and  books  and  all 
things  beautiful,  and  horses  and  rifles  and  children  and 
hard  work  and  the  joy  of  life.  We  have  great  fireplaces 
and  in  them  the  logs  roar  and  crackle  during  the  long 
winter  evenings.  The  big  piazza,  is  for  the  hot,  still  after 
noons  of  summer."  You  can  feel  the  affection  for  his 
home  in  every  line. 


454  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  place  contains  about  eighty^  acres.  The  visitor 
approaches  the  house  from  the  main  road  which  runs 
along  the  shore  of  Oyster  Bay,  by  a  fairly  steep  drive. 
The  house  itself  is  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  overlooking 
the  Sound  and  surrounded  by  lawns  and  fields,  and 
screened  from  the  neighboring  houses  by  belts  of  woods. 
Roosevelt  purchased  the  place  and  built  the  main  part 
of  the  house  in  the  early  eighties.  The  North  Room 
was  added  while  he  was  President.  This  North  Room, 
which  is  the  most  charming  feature  of  the  ground  floor, 
is  reached  from  the  end  of  the  hall  farthest  from  the 
entrance  by  descending  a  few  steps.  It  is  a  large,  high- 
ceilinged  room,  much  lived  in  and  thoroughly  homelike, 
with  a  great  fireplace  inviting  intimate  talk  among  friends 
and  the  chat  which  comes  with  afternoon  tea.  Certainly 
there  is  nothing  about  the  room  which  ever  suggested 
its  use  for  stiff  and  formal  conversation — though  it  has 
been  the  scene  of  some  of  the  most  momentous  political 
conferences  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 

Roosevelt  received  many  gifts  from  all  sorts  of  people. 
The  house  is  filled  with  interesting  things  from  every 
corner  of  the  earth,  given  him  by  kings  and  emperors  and 
dowager  empresses,  as  well  as  by  foreign  universities  and 
cities.  There  are  other  things  which,  because  of  personal 
association,  their  owner  treasured  more,  such  as  a 
Remington  bronze,  "The  Bronco  Buster,"  given  him 
by  the  Rough  Riders,  and  Proctor's  "Cougar,"  the  gift 
of  the  Tennis  Cabinet.  There  are  also  great  elephant 
tusks  and  other  trophies  of  his  hunting  trips.  But  the 
house  is  not  a  museum;  it  is  a  home.  The  living  room  is 
a  place  to  live  in,  not  to  gaze  at  curios.  There  are 
some  heads  of  wild  animals,  but,  unlike  the  homes  of 
other  hunters  I  have  known,  the  guest  does  not  eat  his 


LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE  HILL  455 

meals  under  the  staring  glass  eyes  of  rows  of  dead  beasts. 
In  short,  it  is  exactly  the  kind  of  home  that  those  who 
knew  him  well  would  expect  to  find — the  home  of  a 
simple,  quiet,  cultivated  gentleman. 

There  may  still  be  left  a  few  persons  who  obtained 
their  ideas  of  Roosevelt  from  newspapers  bitterly  hostile 
to  him  politically,  or  who  only  saw  him  as  he  stood  on 
the  rear  platform  of  a  train  during  an  exciting  campaign. 
These  may  still  have  the  impression  that  he  was  always 
slapping  people  on  the  back  and  declaring  that  he  was 
"delighted,"  or  at  least  that  he  was  a  boisterous  and 
familiar  person  whose  animal  spirits  pervaded  his  inter 
course  with  others  at  the  expense  of  good  taste  and 
sometimes  of  good  manners.  Nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  real  facts.  Roosevelt  had  strong  feelings.  He 
often  acted  vigorously  and  spoke  emphatically.  Even 
in  dictating  a  letter  to  his  secretary,  if  he  had  something 
which  he  wished  to  put  strongly,  he  would  accompany 
the  dictation  with  an  emphatic  bang  of  his  fist  on  the1 
table  or  the  arm  of  his  chair.  But  those  who  came  as 
his  guests  to  Sagamore  Hill  never  failed  to  be  impressed 
not  only  with  the  warmth  but  with  the  dignity  of  his 
welcome. 

While  always  uniformally  courteous  and  unassuming, 
there  was  a  dignity  in  his  intercourse  which  prevented 
familiarity  by  any  except  life-long,  close  personal  friends. 
He  had  many  intimate  friends  whom  he  called  by  their 
first  names,  but  unless  they  had  known  him  practically 
all  their  lives,  and  were  of  the  same  age,  they  rarely 
spoke  of  him  or  to  him  as  "Theodore."  On  a  campaign, 
when  he  was  addressing  large  crowds,  there  were  often 
frequent  shouts  of  "Teddy."  This  he  did  not  mind; 
indeed,  he  liked  it,  but  I  have  never  seen  a  man  bold 


456  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

enough,  when  meeting  him,  to  call  him  "Teddy. "'There 
was  something  about  his  personality  which  prevented 
even  the  thought  of  that  kind  of  familiarity.  I  have 
never  known  him  to  listen  to  a  questionable  story,  and 
I  have  some  doubt  whether  anyone  ever  had  the  hardi 
hood  to  tell  him  one.  Part  of  this  dignity  arose  from  his 
innate  self-respect,  as  well  as  from  his  courteous  con 
sideration  of  others.  It  was  also  due  to  the  fact  that 
in  many  respects  he  was  an  old-fashioned  gentleman 
with  the  punctilious  manners  of  an  elder  day.  This  was 
especially  marked  in  his  relations  with  women. 

After  the  death  of  his  friend  Dr.  J.  William  White,  he 
always  stayed,  when  in  Philadelphia,  with  Mr.  Thomas 
Robins.  In  a  letter  referring  to  some  of  his  character 
istics,  Mr.  Robins  says: 

"It  is  true  of  him  that  on  the  social  side  he  was  a 
stand-patter.  His  dress  was  always  in  the  fashion  of  the 
early  eighties,  when  he  was  a  novice  in  politics.  He 
never  changed  the  cut  of  his  clothes  with  the  change  in 
fashion.  His  household  was  regulated  after  the  manner 
of  the  well-to-do  forty  years  ago.  He  liked  to  come  to 
Philadelphia  because  he  found  life  here  more  like  that  in 
which  he  had  grown  up.  He  used  to  talk  and  write  to 
me  of  earlier  days,  when  he  frequently  visited  Mrs. 
Roosevelt's  uncle,  George  Tyler,  and  of  the  marvelous 
home-cooking  in  that  hospitable  mansion — now  pulled 
down — at  Fifteenth  and  Walnut  Streets.  He  was  wont 
to  say  that  he  liked  the  way  in  which  our  food  was  served, 
undisguised  by  the  art  of  the  chef. 

"'When  I  dine  out  in  New  York,'  he  said  to  me  once, 
'potatoes  look  like  flowers  and  the  ice  cream  looks  like 
foliage.  I  can't  distinguish  the  food  from  the  landscape." 

"It  was  evident  that  he  liked  the  ways  of  the  last 


LIFE  AT  SAGAMORE   HILL  457 

generation  and  its  absence  of  'side.'  After  the  death  of  a 
friend  in  Philadelphia  with  whom  he  had  spent  some 
days  at  different  times,  he  wrote  to  me: 

"cln  an  age  which  even  its  upholders  must  admit  to 
be  rather  blatantly  vulgar,  it  was  a  comfort  to  go  to  his 
house  and  see  its  dear  mistress  and  master  and  feel, 
dowTi  to  the  least  detail,  the  sense  of  refinement  and  of 
living  with  Old  School  gentlefolk.' 

"On  the  other  hand,  he  would  not  compromise  with 
his  dignity  to  gratify  imaginary  prejudices  of  the  plain 
people  against  the  formalities  of  life  that  were  the  habits 
and  traditions  of  his  kind.  'I  shall  wear  evening  clothes/ 
he  said  about  a  speech  he  was  to  make  after  dining  with 
me,  adding  whimsically,  'controlling  any  desire  I  may 
have  to  go  Jim  Corbett  one  better  in  the  matter  of  orna 
mental  finery." 

His  courtesy  came  not  merely  from  his  social  training, 
but  from  his  heart.  It  extended,  not  only  to  his  personal 
associates,  but  to  all  the  members  of  his  friends'  house 
holds.  He  always  remembered  the  names  of  the  servants, 
and  if  they  w^ere  from  French-speaking  countries  his 
little  word  at  parting  was  spoken  in  their  own  language, 
with  a  warm  handshake.  Nothing  gave  him  greater 
concern  than  that  he  might  unconsciously  have  shown 
some  lack  of  consideration  for  others.  Once  he  came  to 
Philadelphia  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  his  Brazilian  experi 
ences.  Through  an  unfortunate  accident,  he  was  twenty 
minutes  late.  The  fact  that  he  had  shown  an  apparent, 
though  wholly  unintentional  discourtesy,  so  disturbed 
him  that  it  affected  his  entire  lecture,  which  lacked 
something  of  his  usual  punch.  "I  have  never  in  my  life 
heard  a  cruel  word  from  his  lips,"  one  of  his  relatives 
once  said  to  me:  "He  dislikes  and  despises  many  people, 


458  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

but  even  when  he  wants  to  annihilate  them,  he  is  never 
mean  or  cruel  or  petty  about  it." 

No  one  could  go  to  Sagamore  Hill  without  realizing 
in  some  degree  the  air  of  happiness  that  pervaded  his 
home.  :e There  are  many  forms  of  triumph,"  he  said, 
"but  there  is  no  other  success  that  in  any  shape  or 
way  approaches  that  which  is  open  to  most  of  the  many, 
many  men  and  women  who  have  the  right  ideals.  These 
are  the  men  and  the  women  who  see  that  it  is  the  intimate 
and  homely  things  that  count  most.  They  are  the  men 
and  women  who  have  the  courage  to  strive  for  the  happi 
ness  which  comes  only  with  labor,  effort  and  self-sacrifice, 
and  only  to  those  whose  joy  in  life  springs  in  part  from 
power  of  work  and  sense  of  duty."  To  all  who  knew 
and  loved  him  it  is  an  infinite  satisfaction  to  know  that 
the  "homely  things  that  count  most"  were  his  in  fullest 
measure. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

THE  WORLD  WAR — His  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE 

THE  great  war  began  on  July  28,  1914.     It  brought 
to  Roosevelt  the  opportunity  for  his  last  great 
service  to  his  country.     From  the  beginning  of 
hostilities  in  Europe  until  the  signing  of  the  armistice 
on  November  11,   1918,  he  never  ceased  calling  upon 
America  to  prepare  for  the  inevitable  struggle,  and  when 
that  struggle  came,  to  push  it  through  to  a  successful 
conclusion. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  war,  the  most  important 
question  for  this  country  was  the  question  raised  by 
Germany's  invasion  of  Belgium.  In  the  Outlook  of 
September  23d,  Roosevelt  first  wrote  of  this,  expressly 
stating  that  in  this  article  he  did  not  intend  to 
pass  judgment  upon  Germany.  He  advocated  the 
maintenance  of  American  neutrality  but  was  careful 
not  to  express  himself  with  regard  to  the  propriety  or 
duty  of  protesting  officially  against  the  invasion  of 
Belgium.  At  the  time  of  this  public  statement  he  was 
anxious  to  do  nothing  which  might  embarrass  the 
President,  and  he  therefore  put  in  writing  only  a  part 
of  what  he  really  had  in  mind.  In  conferences  with  his 
fellow-editors  of  the  Outlook,  and  in  a  private  talk  with 
one  of  the  staff  of  the  Kansas  City  Star,  he  made  it  plain 
that  in  his  opinion,  good  morals  and  good  Americanism 
demanded  a  protest  against  the  violation  of  Belgium  in 
contravention  of  the  Hague  Treaty. 

A  year  and   a  half  later   at  the   Republican   State 

(459) 


460  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Convention  in  New  York  City,  Elihu  Root  criticised  the 
President  for  his  failure  to  send  a  sfern  protest  to  Ger 
many  when  Belgium  was  first  invaded.  At  the  Demo 
cratic  Convention  a  few  days  later,  ex-Governor  Glynn 
answered  Root  by  a  counter-attack  upon  Roosevelt,  who 
was  by  this  time  generally  regarded  as  the  foremost 
Republican  critic  of  the  Administration.  Glynn  pro 
duced  with  delight  Roosevelt's  Outlook  article  of  Sep 
tember,  1914,  and  quoted  from  it  certain  isolated  passages 
which  seemed  to  indicate  that  at  that  time  the  Colonel 
did  not  favor  sending  a  protest  in  the  Belgium  matter. 
But  Glynn's  address,  although  it  afforded  comfort  to 
himself  and  to  his  hearers,  was  not  based  upon  the 
complete  facts.  Roosevelt,  with  his  strong  conviction 
that  a  protest  against  the  Belgium  outrage  should  have 
been  lodged  at  once,  had  been  careful  not  to  preclude 
himself  from  later  stating  this  conviction.  In  the  course 
of  this  article  he  had  said:  "Neutrality  may  be  of  prime 
necessity  to  maintain  peace,  ....  but  we  pay  the 
penalty  of  this  action  on  behalf  of  peace  for  ourselves, 
and  possibly  for  others  in  the  future,  by  forfeiting  our 
right  to  do  anything  on  behalf  of  peace  for  the  Belgians 
at  present."  Although  he  did  not  yet  say  so  in  public, 
he  believed  that  our  right  to  protest  the  rape  of  Belgium 
was  also  our  duty. 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Lawrence  F.  Abbott,  one  of 
the  editors  of  the  Outlook,  shows  conclusively  that  he 
was  convinced  at  the  time  that  the  protest  should  be 
made,  although  he  refrained  from  making  any  public 
declaration  on  the  matter,  in  order  to  leave  the  President 
as  free  a  hand  as  possible.  His  real  conviction  in  the 
matter  appears  in  a  subsequent  statement  made  when 
he  felt  that  circumstances  justified  him  in  breaking  silence: 


<g)  Underwood  cfc  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

Western  Newspaper  Union,  Committee  on  Public  Information,  American  Press  Association. 

THE  FOUR  SOLDIER  SONS  OF  COLONEL  ROOSEVELT 

Upper  left:  Lieutenant-Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Jr.,  U.  S.  A.  Upper 
right:  Captain  Archibald  Roosevelt,  U.  S.  A.  Lower  left:  Lieutenant  Quentin 
Roosevelt,  U.  S.  A.  (killed  in  aerial  battle,  July  17,  1918).  Lower  right:  Captain 
Kermit  Roosevelt,  British  Army,  Mesopotamian  Expedition. 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  461 

"I  feel  in  the  strongest  way  that  we  should  have  inter 
fered,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  the  most  emphatic  diplo 
matic  protest  and  at  the  very  outset — and  then  by  what 
ever  further  action  was  necessary — in  regard  to  the 
violation  of  the  neutrality  of  Belgium;  for  this  act  was 
the  earliest  and  the  most  important  and,  in  its  conse 
quences,  the  most  ruinous  of  all  the  violations  and 
offenses  against  treaties  committed  by  any  combatant 
during  the  war." 

The  Lusitania  was  sunk  on  May  7,  1915.  She  was 
torpedoed  without  warning  and  carried  with  her  to  their 
graves  1,153  souls,  of  whom  114  were  Americans.  In  an 
instant  the  country  was  ablaze  from  end  to  end.  Roose 
velt  two  days  later  made  a  public  statement  through  the 
press,  in  which  he  charged  that  "for  many  months  our 
government  has  preserved  between  right  and  wrong  a 
neutrality  which  would  have  excited  the  emulous  admira 
tion  of  Pontius  Pilate — the  arch-typical  neutral  of  all 
time."  He  spoke  with  intense  indignation  of  the  crime 
itself  and  of  the  frightful  wrongs  which  had  been  com 
mitted  in  Belgium  and  concluded:  "Unless  we  act  with 
immediate  decision  and  vigor  we  shall  have  failed  in  the 
duty  demanded  by  humanity  at  large,  and  demanded 
even  more  clearly  by  the  self-respect  of  the  American 
Republic." 

On  the  next  day  the  President  delivered  an  address 
to  a  body  of  newly  naturalized  citizens  in  Convention 
Hall,  Philadelphia.  The  nation  was  waiting  breathlessly 
for  a  pronouncement  on  the  issue  raised  by  the  Lusitania. 
The  President  made  no  reference  to  the  Lusitania,  but 
he  made  one  statement  which  amazed  and  perplexed 
millions  of  his  fellow-citizens.  With  the  death  cries  of 
American  men,  women  and  children  ringing  in  their  ears 


462  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

they  read  the  President's  words:  "There  is  such  i  thing 
as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to  convince 
others  by  force  that  it  is  right." 

It  is  not  hard  to  imagine  what  Roosevelt's  feelings 
must  have  been  when  he  read  this  speech,  and  how  he 
must  have  longed  to  resume,  if  only  for  an  hour,  the 
powers  of  the  presidency.  But  he  was  powerless,  except 
to  utter  his  thoughts,  and  in  doing  this  he  had  ceased  to 
attempt  any  concealment  of  his  feelings.  He  had  a 
perfectly  definite  conviction  as  to  what  ought  to  be  done: 
"Without  twenty -four  hours'  delay  this  country  should 
and  could  take  effective  action.  It  should  take  possession 
of  all  the  interned  German  ships,  including  the  German 
warships,  and  hold  them  as  a  guarantee  that  ample 
satisfaction  shall  be  given  us.  Furthermore  it  should 
declare  that  in  view  of  Germany's  murderous  offenses 
against  the  rights  of  neutrals  all  commerce  with  Germany 
shall  be  forthwith  forbidden  and  all  commerce  of  every 
kind  permitted  and  encouraged  with  France,  England, 
Russia,  and  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world. 

"I  do  not  believe  that  the  firm  assertion  of  our  rights 
means  war,  but,  in  any  event,  it  is  well  to  remember 
there  are  things  worse  than  war." 

Thereafter  he  condemned  again  and  again  the  Ad 
ministration's  inaction  and  the  policy  of  note-writing 
which  had  been  resorted  to.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he 
was  firmly  persuaded  that  instant  action  of  the  kind 
which  he  had  advocated  at  the  time  was  the  imperative 
duty  of  the  nation.  Instead  of  that,  he  said,  "for  two 
years  after  the  Lusitania  was  sunk,  we  continued  to  fawn 
on  the  blood-stained  murderers  of  our  people,  we  were 
false  to  ourselves  and  we  were  false  to  the  cause  of  right 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  463 

and  of  liberty  and  democracy  throughout  the  world. 
Had  we  done  our  duty  when  the  Lusitania  was  sunk, 
instead  of  following  the  advice  of  the  apostles  of  greedy 
and  peaceable  infamy,  the  World  War  with  its  dreadful 
slaughter  would  long  ago  have  been  over." 

As  time  went  on,  his  controversy  with  the  Adminis 
tration  became  more  and  more  acute.  On  August  25, 
1915,  he  addressed  the  Reserve  Officers'  Training  Camp 
at  Plattsburg,  N.  Y.,  at  the  invitation  of  Major-General 
Leonard  Wood.  He  spoke  with  indignation  of  the  exist 
ing  American  policy  with  respect  to  Mexico,  saying,  "we 
have  treated  elocution  as  a  substitute  for  action."  Again 
he  condemned  our  failure  to  protest  the  invasion  of 
Belgium  which  he  said  it  was  our  bounden  duty  to  do, 
and  asserted  that  for  thirteen  months  America  had 
played  an  ignoble  part  among  the  nations.  After  the 
speech  he  told  the  reporters  that  he  did  not  consider 
that  the  President  was  entitled  to  popular  support  except 
in  so  far  as  he  justified  that  support  by  a  proper  regard 
for  the  welfare  of  the  country. 

This  speech  made  a  tremendous  stir.  Lindley 
Garrison,  the  Secretary  of  War,  publicly  reproved  General 
Wood  for  having  permitted  Roosevelt  to  make  it,  and 
the  Colonel  thereupon  took  up  the  cudgels  in  his  friend's 
behalf  and  assumed  entire  responsibility  for  what  he 
had  said.  He  reminded  the  Secretary  that  his  speech 
was  advertised  long  in  advance  and  that  if  the  Adminis 
tration  had  not  wished  him  to  speak  they  could  have 
denied  him  permission  to  do  so.  This  turned  Garrison's 
attack  upon  Roosevelt  with  a  statement  that  it  was  not 
his  duty  to  follow  the  Colonel  up  and  prevent  him  from 
making  indiscreet  speeches.  This  answer,  which  begged 
the  issue,  was  phrased  in  a  semi- jocose  style  which  the 


464  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Colonel  characterized  as  "buffoonery,"  and  thus  the 
controversy  ended.  But  Roosevelt's  speech  was  not 
forgotten  and  marked  the  real  beginning  of  his  acknowl 
edged  leadership  among  those  who  wished  to  see  the 
United  States  take  her  rightful  place  among  the  nations. 

In  his  message  to  Congress  in  December,  1915,  the 
President  came  out  tentatively  for  preparedness;  but  his 
proposal  was  coolly  received  by  Congress  and  by  the  coun 
try  and  for  the  time  he  did  not  press  the  matter  further. 
Roosevelt,  however,  never  varied  in  his  attitude.  He 
had  no  patience  whatever  with  talk  when  it  took  the 
place  of  action.  On  May  19,  1916,  in  a  speech  at  Detroit 
he  said :  "  We  first  hysterically  announced  that  we  would 
not  prepare  because  we  were  afraid  that  preparation 
might  make  us  lose  our  vantage-ground  as  a  peace-loving 
people.  Then  we  became  frightened  and  announced 
loudly  that  we  ought  to  prepare;  that  the  world  was  on 
fire;  that  our  own  national  structure  was  in  danger  of 
catching  aflame;  and  that  we  must  immediately  make 
ready.  Then  we  turned  another  somersault  and  aban 
doned  all  talk  of  preparedness;  and  we  never  did  anything 
more  than  talk." 

For  more  than  two  years  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  Roosevelt  continued,  without  ceasing,  to  advocate 
preparation  for  the  part  which  he  saw  that  we  were 
bound  to  play.  He  was  eager  to  see  the  army  and  navy 
strengthened  and  made  ready,  and  he  Was  just  as  eager  to 
induce  in  his  fellow-countrymen  that  heroic  mood  which 
would  fit  them  for  the  sacrifice  of  war.  The  conflict  was 
not  one  of  small  trained  armies,  as  in  the  past,  but  of 
peoples.  If  the  United  States  were  to  enter  it,  every 
citizen  would  have  to  take  his  part.  Every  man  capable 
of  bearing  arms  would  be  called  upon  to  give  himself 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  465 

to  his  country.  For  this  reason  Roosevelt  strenuously 
urged  universal  military  training,  which  should  be  built 
upon  the  Swiss  system,  and  should  be  as  democratic  as 
it  is  possible  for  military  training  to  be. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  campaign  for  preparedness 
he  was  treated  as  a  jingo,  scoffed  at  and  ignored.  But 
his  conviction  was  founded  upon  a  rock.  If  the  United 
States  were  to  endure  without  a  blow  the  wrongs  and 
humiliations  heaped  upon  her  and  upon  other  civilized 
nations  by  the  German  empire,  her  position  in  the  world 
family  would  be  gone  forever.  The  foremost  duty  of 
this  government,  as  of  every  government,  was  to  protect 
the  lives  and  welfare  of  its  own  citizens.  These  could 
never  be  secure  unless  the  United  States  should  arm 
and  should  join  with  the  Allies  in  the  vindication  of 
human  rights.  At  first  Roosevelt  was  almost  single- 
handed  in  his  insistence  that  we  should  make  ready  for 
the  struggle  and  in  his  advocacy  of  universal  military 
training,  but  gradually  his  voice  began  to  awake  an  echo 
from  the  heart  of  America,  as  it  had  so  often  done  before. 
Our  spiritual  preparedness  for  war  when  it  came  to  us 
was  due  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  one  man.  The 
widespread  acceptance  of  the  principle  of  universal  mili 
tary  training  was  a  tribute  to  the  power  of  his  leadership. 

On  April  6th  came  the  declaration  of  war.  Shortly, 
thereafter,  Roosevelt  called  upon  the  President  to  express 
his  approval  and  his  desire  to  cooperate  to  the  greatest 
possible  extent  in  the  Administration's  war  program. 

He  was  eager  to  see  our  men  immediately  on  the  firing 
line  in  Europe.  "Let  us,"  he  said  to  the  citizens  of 
Chicago,  "put  the  flag  at  the  front  now,  at  the  earliest 
moment,  and  not  merely  announce  that  we  are  going 
to  fight  a  year  or  two  hence."  Nor  did  he  confine 
so 


466  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

himself  to  urging  other  men  to  fight  for  their  country. 
He  was  desperately  anxious  to  go  himself.  As  far  back 
as  the  spring  of  1915,  when  the  Lusitania  was  sunk,  he 
had  conceived  the  idea  of  raising  a  volunteer  division 
for  immediate  service  at  the  front  as  soon  as  it  should 
be  needed.  In  the  summer  of  1916  the  project  assumed 
more  definite  shape  and  he  began  to  receive  tremendous 
floods  of  applications  from  those  who  wished  to  go. 

When  at  last  war  came  in  fact,  though  not  in  name, 
on  January  31,  1917,  Roosevelt  was  ready.  On  February 
2d  he  wrote  the  Secretary  of  War  renewing  his  offer  to 
raise  a  division,  and  asking  to  be  notified  if  the  probability 
of  war  would  compel  his  cancellation  of  a  proposed  trip 
to  Jamaica.  Mr.  Baker  answered  immediately  that  no 
situation  had  arisen  which  would  justify  him  in  suggesting 
a  postponement  of  the  trip;  but  on  the  day  of  his  answer 
diplomatic  relations  with  Germany  were  severed  and 
Roosevelt  immediately  abandoned  the  idea  of  going  to 
Jamaica. 

Instead  he  wrote  to  Baker  again  urging  the  War 
Department  to  furnish  him  with  facilities  for  the  raising 
of  his  division.  Then  ensued  a  correspondence  extending 
over  some  weeks.  Baker  took  the  position  that  such  a 
volunteer  force  could  not  be  raised  without  permission 
of  Congress.  Roosevelt  continually  pressed  his  request 
with  a  statement  that  he  would  "of  course  ask  no  favors 
of  any  kind  except  that  the  division  be  put  in  the  fighting 
line  at  the  earliest  possible  moment." 

When  war  was  actually  declared,  Baker  and  Roosevelt 
conferred  together  in  regard  to  the  matter  and  Roosevelt 
repeated  his  request.  Again  Baker  refused  on  the 
ground  that  the  War  College  Division  of  the  General 
Staff  had  advised  him  that  the  best  professional  soldiers 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  467 

should  first  be  retained  in  this  country  to  train  troops, 
and  should  subsequently  command  any  expedition  which 
might  be  sent  to  Europe.  After  a  final  refusal  by  Baker, 
Congress  passed  the  Draft  Act  in  which  they  authorized 
the  President  to  accept  volunteer  troops  of  the  kind 
which  Roosevelt  was  anxious  to  raise.  Thereupon  he 
telegraphed  to  the  President  on  May  18th  asking  for 
permission  to  raise  two  divisions  for  immediate  service 
at  the  front  and  announcing  himself  ready  to  raise  four 
divisions  if  the  President  should  so  direct. 

Wilson's  answer  to  this  was  a  public  statement  in 
which  he  explained  that  the  plan  was  rejected  for  purely 
military  reasons.  He  also  sent  Roosevelt  a  telegram, 
in  which  he  stated  that  his  conclusions  "were  based 
entirely  upon  imperative  considerations  of  public  policy 
and  not  upon  personal  or  private  choice."  There  was 
nothing  to  do  but  to  give  up  the  idea  entirely  and  to 
release  the  300,000  and  more  men  who  had  volunteered 
for  service.  All  of  the  volunteers  were  men  who  would 
have  been  exempt  from  draft,  and  included  such  men 
as  Seth  Bullock,  Henry  L.  Stimson,  Taft's  Secretary 
of  War,  James  R.  Garfield  and  Raymond  Robbins. 
Roosevelt  issued  a  statement  addressed  to  all  his  volun 
teers,  in  which  he  deplored  their  inability  to  go  together 
and  in  which  he  emphatically  and  indignantly  repudiated 
the  suggestion  that  any  motives  of  personal  or  political 
advantage  had  actuated  him. 

Thus  he  failed  to  achieve  his  heart's  desire.  Although 
he  was  represented  in  the  fighting  forces  by  his  four 
sons,  the  youngest  of  whom  gave  his  lite  for  his  country, 
he  could  not  be  content  with  this  kind  of  vicarious  sacrifice. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  moral  effect  would  have  been 
tremendous  had  he  been  permitted  to  carry  out  his  plan. 


468  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

His  personal  popularity,  not  only  in  this  country  but 
in  Great  Britain  and  France,  couple d*  with  the  addition 
of  his  men  to  the  fighting  line  long  before  any  American 
soldiers,  other  than  the  regulars,  could  be  placed  there, 
would  have  been  a  mighty  inspiration  to  the  morale  of  the 
hard-pressed  Allies. 

But  if  he  were  to  be  denied  the  service  which  he 
most  craved,  he  was  still  determined  to  do  all  that  he 
could  behind  the  lines.  His  insistent  desire  to  take  troops 
immediately  to  the  front  helped  to  impress  upon  the 
American  people  the  vital  necessity  of  getting  soldiers 
to  Europe  without  the  loss  of  a  day.  He  was  the  Ad 
ministration's  most  caustic  critic  if  slackness  or  incom- 
petency  appeared.  He  was  boiling  with  impatience  to 
see  the  day  when  an  American  army  worthy  of  the 
name  should  face  the  Germans.  Rhetoric  in  place  of 
action  stung  him  to  madness. 

On  June  7th,  the  Secretary  of  War  stated  in  the 
Official  Bulletin  that  there  was  "difficulty,  disorder  and 
confusion  in  getting  things  started,  but  it  is  a  happy 
confusion.  I  delight  in  the  fact  that  when  we  entered 
this  war  we  were  not,  like  our  adversary,  ready  for  it, 
anxious  for  it,  prepared  for  it  and  inviting  it.  Accustomed 
to  peace,  we  were  not  ready."  We  can  well  imagine 
what  impression  these  words  made  upon  Roosevelt's 
mind.  Early  in  September,  in  commenting  upon  this 
statement,  Roosevelt  pointed  to  the  deliberate  failure  to 
make  any  preparations  until  the  actual  formal  declaration 
of  war  on  April  6th,  to  the  long-drawn  squabble  between 
the  advocates  of  steel  and  wooden  ships,  and  above 
all  to  the  imperative  necessity  of  throwing  every  human 
and  material  resource  immediately  into  the  military 
preparations  before  it  should  be  too  late. 


Underwood  ct   Underwood,  A" 

THE  LAST  PUBLIC  APPEARANCE 


Photograph  taken  at  the  last  public  appearance  of  Colonel  Theodore  Roose 
velt  just  before  the  serious  illness  which  resulted  in  his  death.  The  Colonel, 
clearly  showing  the  effects  of  age  and  his  recent  bereavement,  is  wearing  a  mourn 
ing  band  in  memory  of  his  son,  Quentin,  killed  in  an  airplane  battle  over  the 
German  lines  in  July,  1918. 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  469 

Early  in  October  of  1917,  the  Secretary  of  War  was 
authoritatively  quoted  in  the  press  as  having  said,  "We 
are  well  on  the  way  to  the  battlefront."  At  that  time 
we  had  only  reached  the  battlefront  with  one  division, 
although  a  state  of  war  had  actually,  if  not  officially, 
existed  since  January  31st.  "For  comparison  with  this 
kind  of  military  activity,"  said  Roosevelt,  "we  must  go 
back  to  the  days  of  Tiglath  Pileser,  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
Pharaoh.  The  United  States  should  adopt  the  stand 
ards  of  speed  in  war  which  belong  to  the  twentieth 
century  A.  D.;  we  should  not  be  content  and  still  less 
boast  about  standards  which  were  obsolete  in  the  seven 
teenth  century  B.  C." 

One  newspaper  referred  to  the  country's  development 
into  "a  powerful  fighting  machine."  "To  speak  of  a 
powerful  fighting  machine,"  said  Roosevelt,  "which  after 
ten  months  is  not  ready  to  do  any  fighting,  is  a  ludicrous 
contradiction  in  terms."  Again  and  again  in  addresses 
throughout  the  country,  in  magazine  articles  and  in 
conversation  with  his  friends,  he  pointed  out  the  differ 
ence  between  words  and  action.  He  had  no  sympathy 
with  that  type  of  mind  which,  if  it  must  strike,  thinks  to 
accomplish  its  end  by  striking  softly.  When  war  came 
he  believed  that  all  other  considerations  should  give  way, 
and  that  the  last  ounce  of  the  nation's  strength  should 
be  spent,  if  necessary,  on  the  righteous  cause  which  she 
had  espoused.  Not  only  his  friends,  but  many  who  had 
been  estranged  from  him  by  the  political  heart-burnings 
of  the  past  few  years,  responded  to  his  call.  Before 
the  war  was  for  us  many  months  old,  he  was  the  recog 
nized  leader  of  those  who  really  desired  the  use  of  all  our 
resources  without  reservation. 

In   February,  1918,  he  underwent  a   painful    minor 


470  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

operation  at  the  Roosevelt  Hospital  in  New  York  City. 
The  operation  was  successful,  but  mastoiditis  developed 
in  his  left  ear  at  the  same  time,  and  for  a  few  hours  his 
condition  was  critical.  For  a  little  over  a  month  he 
stayed  at  the  hospital  gradually  recuperating  and  late 
in  the  winter  was  able  to  go  back  again  to  Oyster  Bay. 

In  the  last  week  of  March  he  spoke  before  the 
Republican  State  Convention  at  Portland,  Maine,  and 
after  that  from  time  to  time  made  addresses  urging  a 
tireless  prosecution  of  the  war.  But  his  health  was  not 
what  it  had  been  and  the  news  of  his  son  Quentin's 
death,  which  occurred  July  17,  1918,  was  a  very  serious 
blow.  He  bravely  went  to  the  New  York  Republican 
State  Convention  in  Saratoga  the  day  after  he  received 
the  news  of  his  loss,  but  his  heart  was  sore  within  him. 

Toward  the  end  of  October  he  spoke  in  Carnegie  Hall 
in  behalf  of  Governor  Whitman  and  displayed  his  old 
fire  and  vigor.  A  few  days  later  he  made  his  last  public 
appearance  at  a  meeting  in  honor  of  a  negro  hospital  unit. 
Then,  on  the  very  day  of  the  armistice,  inflammatory 
rheumatism  compelled  him  to  go  back  again  to  the 
Roosevelt  Hospital.  Happily  he  was  released  in  time  to 
spend  his  last  Christmas  at  home  with  all  the  children 
and  grandchildren  who  were  able  to  come  to  Oyster  Bay. 
After  a  happy  holiday  together  they  parted,  and  Colonel 
and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  were  left  together. 

January  5th  was  spent  in  reading  and  writing  at  his 
home.  He  had  been  reviewing  a  book  on  pheasants  by 
Beebe,  the  naturalist,  and  wrote  the  author  a  letter  in 
regard  to  the  details  of  the  work.  In  the  evening  the 
American  Defense  Society  held  a  concert  in  New  York, 
which  Roosevelt,  as  honorary  president  of  the  society, 
had  been  asked  to  attend.  He  was  unable  to  go  and  so 


HIS  LAST  GREAT  SERVICE  471 

he  sent  a  message — his  last  message  to  the  American 
people.  His  brief  letter  ended  with  these  words  which 
epitomize  his  life's  creed:  "We  have  room  for  but  one 
soul  loyalty,  and  that  is  loyalty  to  the  American  people." 

He  spent  that  evening  with  his  family  and  went  to 
bed  at  eleven  o'clock.  When  he  was  ready  for  sleep  he 
turned  to  his  personal  attendant,  James  Amos,  and  said, 
"Put  out  the  light,  please."  They  were  the  last  words 
he  was  heard  to  utter.  Shortly  after  four  o'clock  the 
next  morning  Amos,  who  was  sleeping  in  the  next  room, 
noticed  that  the  Colonel's  breathing  was  unnatural.  He 
hurried  to  fetch  the  trained  nurse  who  was  sleeping 
nearby,  but  when  they  reached  Roosevelt's  bedside 
they  found  that  a  clot  of  blood,  settling  upon  a  vital 
spot,  had  brought  him  peaceful  death  in  sleep. 

His  burial  without  pomp  or  circumstance  was  what 
he  wished  it  to  be.  He  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  had  chosen 
a  beautiful  spot  on  a  knoll  looking  over  Long  Island 
Sound  for  their  last  resting  place.  On  January  8th  a 
few  members  of  the  family  gathered  at  his  house  and 
joined  in  a  brief  service  of  prayer.  All  of  his  children 
were  there  except  Theodore  and  Kermit,  who  were 
fighting  in  Europe.  The  coffin  was  borne  from  the 
house  draped  with  the  Rough  Riders'  flags  which  he 
had  loved  so  well,  and  was  carried  to  the  village  of  Oyster 
Bay.  There,  in  the  little  Episcopal  church  where  he 
and  his  family  had  worshipped  for  many  years,  were 
gathered  the  country's  representatives  and  many  of 
those  who  had  been  nearest  to  him  in  life.  There  was 
no  music,  no  eulogy,  only  the  time-honored  words  of 
prayer  and  consolation. 

As  they  left  the  church  and  came  out  upon  the  quiet 
spot  where  he  was  to  lie,  there  stretched  before  them  the 


472  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

waters  of  the  Sound,  the  woods  and  hills  which  'he  had 
roamed  since  boyhood,  the  trees  which  had  grown  with 
him — all  the  things  of  nature  which  he  had  loved  so 
dearly  all  his  life.  It  was  a  fitting  place  to  leave  him 
with  a  last  farewell. 

We  who  loved  and  trusted  him  will  mourn  his  loss  not 
only  because  our  friend  is  gone,  but  because  a  great  leader 
has  been  taken  from  us  in  the  time  of  need.  But  we  will 
rejoice  for  him  that  he  w^as  spared  the  further  pain  of 
severed  friendships.  Had  he  lived,  he  would  surely 
have  fought  new  battles  and  these  might  have  opened 
again  the  wounds  of  six  years  before.  He  died  when 
many  of  those  wounds  had  been  healed,  and  when  many 
were  friends  again  who  for  a  time  had  been  accounted 
foes.  For  four  years  he  had  labored  for  America  in  the 
time  of  her  greatest  danger,  and  had  surrendered  his 
own  preferment  for  the  common  good.  He  reaped  his 
reward;  for  before  the  end,  the  voice  of  faction  had  been 
stilled,  and  beside  his  grave  constant  friend  and  former 
foe  alike  united  to  do  him  honor. 


CHRONOLOGY 

(The  numbers  in  parentheses  indicate  pages  of  the  book.) 

1858,  October  27.     Born  in  New  York  City  (27). 

1880,  June  30.     Graduated  from  Harvard  University  (51). 
October  27.     Married  Alice  Hathaway  Lee  (51). 

1881,  November  8.     Elected  to  New  York  Legislature  (56). 
1884,  February  14.     Death  of  his  first  wife  (69). 

1886,  November  2.     Defeated  for  Mayor  of  New  York  (84). 

December  2.     Married  Edith  Kermit  Carow  (193). 
1889,  May   7.     Appointed   United   States    Civil   Service   Commis 
sioner  (84). 
1895,  May  6.    Appointed  New  York  Police  Commissioner  (101). 

June  30.     Sunday  closing  first  enforced  in  New  York  (109). 

1897,  April  6.     Nominated  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (119). 

1898,  February  25.     Cable  to  Admiral  Dewey  (132). 

May    6.     Appointed    Lieutenant-Colonel     First     Volunteer 

Cavalry  (135). 

June  24.     Battle  of  Las  Guasimas  (143). 
July  1.     Battle  of  San  Juan  Hill  (144). 
November  8.     Elected  Governor  (152). 

1899,  January  2.     Inaugurated  as  Governor  (154). 
May  26.     Signs  Ford  Franchise  Bill  (160). 

1900,  June  21.     Receives  Republican  Nomination  for  Vice-President 

(166). 
November  6.     Elected  Vice-President  (168). 

1901,  March  4.     Takes  oflSce  as  Vice-President  (168). 
September  14.     Succeeds  McKinley  as  President  (171). 

1902,  June  17.     Reclamation  Act  (289). 
June  28.     Isthmian  Canal  Act  (219). 
October  15.     Coal  Strike  Settled  (203). 

December  31.     Settlement  of  Venezuela  matter  (211). 

1903,  January   24.     Alaskan   Boundary   Matter   referred   to   Com 

mission  (214). 

February  14.    Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  Act  (274). 
February  19.   Elkins  Rebate  Act  (245). 
November  6.     Recognition  of  Panama  (225). 
November  18.     Convention  with  Panama  (225). 
December  17.     Reciprocity  Treaty  with  Cuba  (210). 

1904,  February  23.     Treaty  with  Panama  ratified  by  Senate  (227). 
June  23.     Receives  Republican  nomination  for  President  (230). 
November  8.     Elected  President  (233). 

1905,  February  1.     Act  Creating  U.  S.  Forest  Service  (292). 
March  4.     Inaugurated  as  President  (235). 

(473) 


474  CHRONOLOGY 

-1905,  June  8.     Notes  to  Japan  and  Russia  (238). 

August  5.     Meeting  of  Peace  Delegated  (239). 
September  5.     Signing  of  Russo-Japanese  Treaty  (241). 

1906,  June  11.     Forest-Homestead  Act  (291). 
June  29.     Hepburn  Rate  Act  (247). 

June  29.     Act  authorizing  lock  canal  at  Panama  (227). 
June  30.     Food  and  Drugs  Act  (247). 

1907,  February  25.     Convention  with  Santo  Domingo  ratified  by 

Senate  (213). 

March  14.     Appoints  Inland  Waterways  Commission  (296). 
November  4.     Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  Conference  (281). 
December  16.     Fleet  starts  around  the  world  (267). 

1908,  April  22.     Employers'  Liability  Act  (247). 

1909,  February  22.     Fleet  returns  (272). 
March  4.     Presidential  term  expires  (301). 
March  23.     Sails  for  Africa  (301). 

April  22.     Starts  into  the  African  wilderness  (302). 

1910,  March  14.     Arrives  at  Khartoum  (311). 
June  1.     Speech  at  Guildhall,  London  (317). 
June  18.     Returns  to  New  York  (317). 
August  31.     Ossawatomie  speech  (329). 

1912,  February  10.     Letter  from  the  seven  Governors  (334-5). 
February  21.     Columbus,  Ohio,  speech  (338). 

February  25.     Announces  candidacy  for  nomination  (335). 

March  20.     Carnegie  Hall  speech  (344). 

June  15.     Goes  to  Chicago  (355). 

June  22.     His    supporters    at    Convention    leave   Republican 

Party  (360). 

August  7.     Nominated  by  Progressive  Party  (377). 
October  14.     Shot  at  Milwaukee  by  John  Schrank  (380). 
November  5.     Defeated  by  Woodrow  Wilson  (382). 

1913,  May  31.     Verdict  in  Newett  Libel  Case  (419). 
October  14.     Leaves  for  South  America  (401). 

1914,  February  27.     Starts  down  the  River  of  Doubt  (408). 
April  15.     Arrives  at  civilization  again  (413). 

May  19.     Returns  to  New  York  (415). 
June  30.     Address  at  Pittsburgh  (415). 

1915,  May  7.     Statement  on  Lusitania  sinking  (462). 
May  22.     Verdict  in  Barnes  Libel  Case  (420). 
August  25.     Address  at  Plattsburgh  (463). 

1916,  June  10.     Second  nomination  by  Progressives  (425). 
June  26.     Withdraws  to  support  Hughes  (427). 

1917,  February  2.     Offers  Volunteer  Division  (466). 
May  21.     Disbands  Volunteer  Division  (467). 

1919,  January  6.     Death  (471). 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Edwin  H.,  371. 

Abbott,  Lawrence  F.,  460. 

Abbott,  Lyman,  417. 

Addams,  Miss  Jane,  314,  370,  377. 

Africa,     Hunting     Trip     in       (Chapter 

XX),  301. 

Ahlwardt  (Anti-Jewish  Preacher),  108 
Alaskan  Boundary  question,  214. 
Aldrich,  Senator,  321,  326. 
Alger,  Russell  A.,  134. 
American    Sugar    Refining    Co.,    Fraud 

of,  280  el  seq. 

American  Tobacco  Company,  275. 
Amos,  James,  471. 
Andrews,  A  very  D.f  101,  154. 
Andrews,  Justice,  420. 
Anthracite  Coal  Strike  of  1902,  198  et  seq. 
Appointments,  Theory  and  Practice  as 

to,  254  et  seq. 

Arthur,  Chester  A.,  85,  119,  173,  229. 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (Chapter 

VIII),  119  et  seq. 

Bacon,  Robert,  46,  179,  243,  255. 

Bacon,  Theodore,  150. 

Baer,  George  F.,  201. 

Baker,  Newton  D.,  466. 

Ballinger,  Richard  A.,  325.  328. 

Barnes,  William,  Jr.,  419. 

Bayard,  Senator,  50. 

Beebe,  Capt.  William,  393. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  372. 

Beirut,  Incident  Relative  to  Vice  Consul, 

213  et  seq. 
Belgium,      Position      in      Regard      to 

Germany's  Invasion,  459  et  seq. 
Bell,  John  G.,  392. 
Beveridge,  Albert  W.,  371. 
Birth,  27. 

Black,  Governor,  148,  150. 
Black  Horse  Cavalry,  61. 
Elaine,  James  G.,  66,  84,  217,  320. 
Bonaparte,  Charles  J.,  198,  257. 
Books:      Account     and     Criticisms     of 

(Chapter  XXIII),  432. 
Bourke,  Edward  J.,  116. 
Boutros,  Premier,  312. 
Brandeis,  Louis  D.,  328. 
Brazil,     Trip    Through     the     Brazilian 

Wilderness,  405  et  seq. 
Bridges,  Robert,  434. 


Bristow,  Joseph  L.,  198. 
Brookfield,  William,  100. 
Brownson,  Capt.  W.  H.,  123. 
Brownson,  Rear  Admiral,  266. 
Brownsville,  Affair  at,  248. 
Bryan,  William  J.,  168,  231,  320. 
Bryce,  James,  258. 
Bulloch,  Anna,  33. 
Bulloch,  Capt.  James  D.,  28. 
Bulloch,  Irvine  Stephens,  29. 
Bullock,  Seth,  78,  467. 
Bunau-Varilla,  M.  Philippe,  224  et  *eq. 
Burroughs,  John,  309. 

Cabinet,  Changes  in,  204  et  seq.,  256 
et  seq. 

Cairo,  Speech  at,  311. 

Cajazeira,  Dr.,  407. 

Campbell,  ex-Governor,  112. 

Canal,  The  Panama  (Chapter  XIV), 
216  et  seq. 

Canal,  Ne*v  York  Canal  Investigation, 
157  et  seq. 

Cannon,  Representative,  321. 

Capron,  Captain  Allyn,  143. 

Carow,  Edith  K.  (Mrs.  Theodore 
Roosevelt),  33,  193. 

Cherrie,  George  K.,  401,  407,  413. 

Childhood  (Chapter  II),  25  et  seq. 

Citizens'  Union  Party,  149,  150. 

Civil  Service  Commissioner,  Work  as 
(Chapter  VI),  84. 

Civil  Service  Law  of  New  York,  Work 
for,  57. 

Civil  Service,  White  Civil  Service  Act  of 
New  York,  158. 

Civil  WTar,  28,  32. 

Clark,  Edward  E.,  204. 

Clayton-Bui wer  Treaty,  217. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  62,  67,  85,  91,  95,  202, 
218. 

Coal  Strike  of  1902,  198  et  seq. 

Colored  Persons,  Appointment  to  Federal 
Office,  194  et  seq. 

Colored  Persons,  Attitude  Towards  Dele 
gates  in  Progressive  Convention,  373. 

Commissions,  Work  as  Police  Com 
missioner  (Chapter  VII),  98  et  seq. 

Conrad,  Holmes,  198. 

Conservation  of  Natural  Resources 
(Chapter  XIX),  288  et  seq. 


(475) 


476 


INDEX 


Conventions.    See  Political  Conventions. 
Corporations,  Attitude  Towards,  274  et 

seq. 
Cortelyou,  George  B.,  169,  172,  201,  206, 

231,  232,  256. 

Costello,  Michael,  57,  63,  64,  65. 
Cowles,  Mrs.  Wm.  S.      See  Roosevelt, 

Anna. 

Cox,  Mrs.  Minnie,  107'. 
Crook,  Colonel  W.  H.,  178,  187,  436. 
Croker,  Richard,  98,  151,  152. 
Crum,  William  D.,  196. 
Cuba,  Intervention,  1906,  243. 
Cuba,    Relations    With,    During    First 

Term,  207  et  seq. 
Cummins,  Senator,  346. 
Cuninghame,  R.  J.,  301.  307.  308. 
Curtis,' General,  57. 
Cutler,  Arthur  H.,  37.  40. 
Czar  of  Russia,  314. 

de  Barros,  Senhor,  404. 

De  Lesseps,  217. 

Democratic  Conventions.     See  Political 

Conventions, 
de  Mores,  Marquis,  75. 
Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  233. 
Derby,   Mrs.  Richard.      See  Roosevelt, 

Ethel. 

Dewey,  Admiral  George,  131,  211. 
Dewey,  Roosevelt's  Telegram  to,  132. 
Dolliver,  Senator,  163,  166. 
Dow.  William,  39,  46,  69. 

Edmunds,  Senator,  66. 

Edward,  King,  237,  314  et  seq. 

Elkhorn  Ranch  (Chapter  V),  68. 

Elkins  Act,  244  et  seq. 

Emery,  Rear  Admiral  William  H.,  268. 

Employers'  Liability  Act,  247. 

Europe,  Journey  Through,  1910,  312  et 

seq. 

European  Addresses,  313  et  seq. 
European  Trips,  34,  42,  53. 
Evans,  Rear  Admiral  Robley  D..  127, 

266,  267. 

Ferris,  J.  A..  78. 

Ferris,  S.  N.,  78. 

Fiala,  Anthony,  401. 

Fish,  Sergeant  Hamilton,  Jr.,  143. 

Flinn,  William,  348,  349,  378. 

Food  and  Drugs  Act,  247  et  seq. 

Foraker,  Senator,  230. 

Ford  Franchise  Bill,  158. 

Ford,  John,  158. 

Forest  Homestead  Act,  293. 

Forest  Transfer  Act,  291. 


Franchise  Taxation,  Ford  Franchise  Bill, 
158  et  setp 

Gage,  Lyman  J.,  205. 

Garfield,  James  R.,  50,  119,  173,  179,  257, 

325,  365,  378,  418,  425,  427,  467. 
Garrison,  Lindley,  463. 
Gaynor,  Mayor,  318. 
George,  Henry,  84. 

Germany,  Venezuelan  Incident,  210  et  seq. 
Glavis,  327. 

Glynn,  Martin  H.,  460. 
Godkin,  Lawrence,  100. 
Goethals,  Colonel  George  W.,  227. 
Goff,  John,  80. 
Gomez,  General,  244. 
Gorgas,  Dr.,  227. 
Gorman,  Senator,  92,  125. 
Governor    of     New    York,     Term    as 

(Chapter  X),  148. 
Grant,  Col.  Frederick  D.,  101. 
Gray,  Judge  George,  204. 
Greene,  General  Francis  V.,  157. 
Grenell,  Judson,  94. 
Grey,  Earl,  315. 

Haakon,  King,  313. 

Hadley,  Governor,  357,  359,  366,  367. 

Hague  Tribunal,  214,  263. 

Hale,  Senator,  321. 

Hampden,  John,  Miniature,  237. 

Hanna,  Mark,  163,  165,  199,  229. 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  232,  233. 

Harrison,  President  William  H.,  84,  91, 

95,  173. 

Hart,  Albert  Bushnell,  46. 
Harvard  University,  46  et  seq. 
Hawley,  Representative,  321. 
Hay,  John,  151,  164,  168,  176,  210,  218, 

233,  236,  250,  257. 
Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty,  218. 
Hay-Herran  Treaty,  219. 
Hayes,  President,  217. 
Hazel,  Judge  John  R.,  171. 
Heller,  Edmund,  301. 
Hendricks,  Francis,  85,  155. 
Hepburn,  Representative,  186. 
Hepburn  Rate  Act,  245  et  seq. 
Herran,  Dr.,  219,  220. 
Hess,  Jacob,  56. 
Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  84. 
Hill,  Prof.  Adams  Sherman,  50. 
Hill,  Senator  David  B.,  114. 
Hinman,  Harvey  D.,  419. 
Hitchcock,  Ethan  Allen,  171. 
Hobart,  Garrett  A.,  163. 
Holleben,    Dr.    (German    Ambassador), 

210. 


INDEX 


477 


Howe,  Walter,  57. 
Hughes,  Charles  E..  422,  425,  427. 
Humphrey,  Captain,  224. 
Hunt,  Isaac,  57. 

Inaugural  Address,  235  et  seq. 
Inauguration,  March  4,  1905,  235. 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  285. 
Ingersoll,  Col.  Robert  G.,  66. 
Initiative,  Position  on,  339. 
Inland  Waterways  Commission,  297. 
Insurance,   Appointment   of   New   York 

State  Superintendent  of,  155  et  seq. 
Ireland,  Archbishop,  199. 

Jackson,  Lieutenant  Governor,  301. 
Japan,    Treaty   of    Portsmouth,    238  et 

seq. 
Japanese,   Exclusion  from  Schools,   241 

et  seq. 

Johnson,  Sir  Harry,  389. 
Johnson,  Hiram  W.,  360,  365,  378,  416. 
Johnston,  George  D.,  86. 
Jones,  Thomas  G.,  194. 
Joseph,  Archduke,  313. 
Joseph,  Emperor  Francis,  313. 
Jusserand,  M.,  179. 

Kaiser,  Wilhelm,  314. 

Kaneko,  Baron,  239. 

Kelly,  John,  110. 

Kelly,  Peter,  57. 

Kettle  Hill,  144. 

Khartoum,  Arrival  at,  311,  312,  328. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  175. 

Kirch wey,  Dean  George  W.,  374. 

Knox,    Attorney-General    Philander   C.f 

201,  206. 

Koester,  George  E.,  194. 
Komura,  Baron,  240. 
Kossuth,  Francis,  313. 

Labor,  Attitude  Towards,  283  et  seq. 

La.  Follette,  Senator,  246,  333,  346,  347. 

Lambert,  Dr.  Alexander,  418. 

Land  Frauds,  278  et  seq. 

Las  Guasimas,  Battle  of,  143. 

Lee    Alice   Hathaway     (Mrs.   Theodore 

Roosevelt),  50,  51,  69. 
Legal  Studies,  53. 
Leishman,  Ambassador,  312. 
Leupp,  Francis  E.,  121,  129,  195. 
Lexow  Committee,  99. 
Libel  Suits,  Barnes  vs.  Roosevelt,  419  et 

seq. 
Libel  Suits,  Roosevelt  vs.  Newett,  417  et 

seq. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  319,  330,  338,  339. 


Lindsey,  Judge  Ben  B.,  378. 

Llewellyn,  Major,  79. 

Lodge,  Senator,  47,  93,  94. 

Loeb,  William,  Jr.,  170,  172,  418. 

Logan,  John  A.,  66. 

Long,  John,  46. 

Long,  John  D.,  Secretary  of  Navy,  127, 
131,  132,  133,  163,  171,  205. 

Longworth,  Nicholas,  184. 

Longworth,  Mrs.  Nicholas.  See  Roose 
velt,  Alice. 

Loring,  J.  Alden,  301. 

Lusitania,  Position  in  Regard  to  Sinking 
of,  461. 

Lyman,  Charles,  86. 

Lyra.  Lieutenant,  407,  409,  413. 

Magee,  Christopher,  349. 

Magelssen,  Consul  at  Beirut,  213. 

Magoon,  Charles  E.,  244. 

Mahan,  Admiral,  264. 

Maine,  Sinking  of  the,  127. 

Maine,  Visits  to,  46. 

Maroquin,  Vice-President,  219,  220. 

Martin,  Elbert,  380. 

Marques,  Senhor,  405. 

Marriage,  51,  193. 

McCarthy,  Charles  H.,  374. 

McClain,  Penrose  A.,  256. 

McCoach,  William,  256. 

McCormick,  Vance  C.,  441. 

McKinley,  President  William,  120,  125, 

166,  168,  169,  172. 
McKinley,    William,    Assassination    of, 

169  et  seq. 

McMullen,  Prof.,  40. 
Mearns,    Lieutenant-Colonel   Edgar   A., 

301. 

Merriam,  Dr.  C.  Hart,  389,  395. 
Merrifield,  W.  J.,  78. 
Metcalf,  Victor  H.,  206,  257. 
Meyer,  George,  71,  78. 
Meyer,  George  Von  L.,  240,  257. 
Milburn,  John  G.,  171. 
Miller,  Leo  E.,,  401,  414. 
Minot,  Henry  D.,  392. 
Minuit,  Peter,  25. 
Mitchell.  John,  199,  201. 
Mitchell,  Lex  N.,  358. 
Monroe    Doctrine,    Treaty    with    Santo 

Domingo,  212  et  seq. 
Moody,  William  H.,  205,  206. 
Moore,  Alexander  P.,  348. 
Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  200,  203. 
Morley,  John,  175. 
Morton,  Paul,  206,  245. 
Miiller,  Lauro,  402. 
Murphy,  Lieutenant,  224. 


478 


INDEX 


Murray,  Joseph,  56. 
Murray,  Lawrence,  179. 

Natural  History,  Studies  in,  42,  44,  193. 
Naturalist,     Position     and       Work     as 

(Chapter  XXV),  384  et  seq. 
Navy,  Services  for,  as  President  (Chapter 

XVII.),  259. 
Navy,  Trip  of  Fleet  Around  World,  265 

et  seq. 
Navy,    WTork     as    Assistant    Secretary 

(Chapter  VIII),  119  et  seq. 
Negroes,  Appointment  to  Federal  Office, 

194  et  seq. 
Negroes,  Attitude  Towards  Delegates  in 

Progressive  Convention,  373. 
Nevada,  Federal  Troops  Sent  to,  287. 
New  Nationalism,  Address  on,  330. 
New    York    Legislature,      Member    of 

(Chapter  IV),  52. 
Newberry,  Truman  H.,  257. 
Newbold,  Thomas,  57. 
Newett,  George  A.,  417,  418. 
New  Grenada  Treaty,  217. 
Nobel  Prize  Committee,  Speech  to,  313. 
Nobel  Peace  Prize,  241. 
North     American     Conservation     Con 
ference,  297. 
Northern  Securities  Company,  276. 

Odell,  Benjamin  B.,  163,  165,  233. 

Ohio  Constitutional  Convention,  Address 

Before,  338  et  seq. 
OTaughlin,  John  Callan,  328. 
Orchestra  Hall,  Nomination  for  President 

at,  364. 
Ossawatomie,  Speech  at,  330. 

Palisades  Interstate  Park,  160. 

Palma,  President,  243. 

Panama  Canal  (Chapter  XIV),    216    et 

seq. 

Parker,  Judge  Alton  B.,  231  et  seq. 
Parker,  Andrew  D.,  101. 
Parker,  Edward  W.,  204. 
Parker,  John  M.,  378,  428. 
Partridge,  John  NM  154. 
Payn,  Louis  F.,  155. 
Payne,  Henry  C.,  197,  205,  207. 
Payne  Tariff  Bill,  326. 
Pease,  Sir  Alfred,  303. 
Pepper,  George  Wharton,  328. 
Perkins,  George  W.,  423. 
Pinchot,  Gifford,  178,  179,  251,  327,  328, 

370,  373,  378,  415,  418,  441. 
Pinchot-Glavis-Ballinger  Controversy, 

327  et  seq. 


Pious  Fund  of  the  Californias,  £14. 
Platt,  Senator,  148,  153,  156,  158,  162 

165,  207,  255,  419. 
Plimley,  William,  255. 
Police  Commissioner,  Work  as    (Chanter 

VII),  98  ei  seq. 
Political  Campaigns: 
1884,  66,  67. 
1898,   for  Governor  of  New  York, 

148  et  seq. 

1886.  for  Mayor  of  New  York,  84. 
1916,  for  Mr.  Justice  Hughes,  428 

et  seq. 
1904,  for   President    (Chapter  XV), 

229  et  seq. 

1912,  for  President,  378  et  seq. 
1914,  for  Progressive  Party  candi 
dates,  415  et  seq. 

Reason  for  becoming  candidate  for 
Republican  nomination,  1912,  333 
et  seq. 

For    the     Republican     nomination, 

1912  (Chapter  XXIIL),  346  et  seq. 

Republican   nomination,    1916,    420 

et  seq. 

1900,  for  Vice  President,  166  et  seq. 
Political  Conventions: 

Democratic,  1912,  379. 

Progressive   Convention,    1912,   370 

et  seq. 

Progressive,  1916,  423  et  seq. 
Republican,  1884,  66. 
Republican,  N.  Y.  State  Convention, 

1898,  150. 

Republican,  1900,  164  et  seq. 
Republican,  1904,  230. 
Republican,  1908,  323  et  seq. 
Republican,    1912,   354  et  seq. 
Republican,  191G,  422  et  seq. 
Portsmouth,  Treaty  of,  238  et  seq. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  240. 
Post  Office  Department,  Frauds  in,  197 

et  seq. 

Potter,  Bishop,  199. 
Potter,  William,  134. 
Pound,  James  H.,  417. 
Preparedness,  Position  on,  464. 
Presidency,  Life  in  White  House  (Chap 
ter  XII.),  175  et  seq. 
Presidency,  First  Term    (Chapter  XIII), 

194  et  seq. 
Presidency,     Second     Term      (Chapter 

XVI.),  238  et  seq. 
Presidential     Commissions,     Contention 

over,  325. 
Proctor,  John  R.,  86. 


INDEX 


479 


Progressive   Movement,    Beginnings     of 
(Chapter  XXI),  319  et  aeq. 
Formation      of    Progressive    Party 

(Chapter  XXIV),  368  et  seq. 
Ideas  on  Direct  Control  of  People 
over         Government        (Chapter 
XXII.),  336  et  seq. 
Platforms  of  Progressive  Party,  376, 

424,  427. 
Progressive    Party  after  1912  (Chapter 

XXVII.),  415. 
Public  Land  Commission,  294. 

Quay,  Senator  Matthew  S.,  203,  256,  259. 
Quigg,  Lemuel  E.,  148. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  46. 

Ranch  Life  (Chapter  V),  68. 

Ranquet,  M.,  311. 

Raphael,  Otto,  104. 

Recall  of  Executive  Officers,  Position  on, 

340. 

Recall  of  Judges,  Position  on,  340. 
Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions,  Position  on, 

341  et  seq. 

Referendum,  Position  on,  339. 
Republican  Conventions.      See  Political 

Conventions. 
Republican  National   Committee,    1912, 

Contests  before,  351  et  seq. 
Riis,  Jacob  A.,  75,  106,   183,   186,  417. 
River  of  Doubt,  407  et  seq. 
Robb,  Hampden,  57. 
Robbins,  Raymond,  370,  378,  424,  467. 
Robins,  Thomas,  430,  452,  456. 
Robinson,  Mrs.  Douglas.    See  Roosevelt, 

Corinne. 
Robinson,    Mrs.    Douglas;     Sketch    of 

Roosevelt's  Childhood,  35. 
Rondon,  Colonel,  402,  403,  407.  410,  411, 

414. 

Roosevelt,  Alice  L.,  184. 
Roosevelt,     Anna     (Mrs.     William     S. 

Cowles),  33. 

Roosevelt,  Archibald  B.,  184  et  seq. 
Roosevelt,   Cornelius   Van   Schaack,  26, 

43. 

Roosevelt,  Corrinne  (Mrs.  Douglas  Rob 
inson),  33,  35,  335. 
Roosevelt,  Elliott,  33,  35,  38,  43. 
Roosevelt,  Ethel  (Mrs.  Richard  Derby), 

184,  311. 
Roosevelt,   Kermit,   184,  301,   307,  311, 

401,  407,  408,  413,  415,  471. 
Roosevelt,  Klaes  Martcnsen  Van,  25. 
Roosevelt,  Quentin,  184  et  seq. 
Roosevelt,  Robert  B.,  34. 


Roosevelt,  Mrs.  Theo.  (Alice  Lee  Hath 
away),  69. 

Roosevelt,  Mrs.  Theo.  (Edith  Kermit 
Carow),  182,  183,  311,  354,  356,  381, 

.    426,  444,  449,  470,  471. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  Jr.,  186,  471. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  Sr.,  26  et  seq,  30,  44, 
52. 

Roosevelt,  Mrs.  Theo.,  Sr.,  31  et  seq., 
69. 

Roosevelt,  W.  Ernlen,  450. 

Root,  Elihu,  164,  171,  203,  206,  230,  257, 
358,  460. 

Rosen,  Baron,  239. 

Rosewater,  Victor,  357,  361. 

Rough  Riders  (Chapter    IX),  134  et  seq. 

Rowell,  Chester  A.,  373,  375. 

Russia,  Treaty  of  Portsmouth,  238  et 
seq. 

Russo-Japanese  Treaty,  313. 

Sagamore  Hill,  Life  at"(Chapter  XXIX), 

441. 

San  Juan  Hill,  Battle  of,  144  et  seq. 
Santo    Domingo,    Treaty    with,    212   et 

seq. 

Schiff,  Jacob  H.,  112. 
Schofield,  Major-General,  203. 
Schrank,  John,  381. 
Schurz,  Carl,  112. 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Work  as  (Chapter 

VIII.),  limt  seq. 
Selous,  Frederick  Courteney,  301. 
Sewall,  William,  39,  46,  69. 
Shafter,  General,  146. 
Shaw,  Albert,  222,  417. 
Shaw,  Leslie  M.,  205. 
Sheldon,  George  R.,  255. 
Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  274  et  seq. 
Sherman,  Vice-President,  233. 
Shidy  Case,  89. 
Sigg,  Jacob,  401,  405,  407. 
Sloan,  James,  178. 
Smith,  Charles  Emory,  171,  205. 
Smith,  Herbert  Knox,  179. 
Sorbonne  Address,  313. 
South  American  Trip  (Chapter   XXIV), 

401. 
Southern    Appointments,    Policy    as    to, 

194  et  seq. 

Spanish  War  (Chapter   IX),  134  et  seq. 
Sperry,  C.  S.,  268,  270. 
Sprague,  Henry,  57. 
Standard  Oil  Company,  245. 
Stewart,  General  Daniel,  32. 
Stimson,  Henry  L.,  467. 
Stone,  Governor,  200. 
Stone,  Witmer,  384,  385. 


544* 


INDEX 


Straus,  Oscar  S.,  258. 

Strong,  William  L.,  100,  101,  109. 

Sullivan,  John  L.,  189. 

Taft,  William  H.,  206,  243,  257,  301,  320, 

325,  329,  334,  347,  351. 
Takahira,  Mr.,  240. 
Tardieu,  Andre,  182. 
Tarlton,  Leslie,  301,  306. 
Tenement   House  Investigation,    N.    Y. 

City,  160. 

Tennessee  Coal  &  Iron  Co.,  281  et  seq. 
Thayer,  William  R.,  53,  161. 
Thomas,  C.  M.,  268. 
Thompson,  Hugh  S.,  86. 
Tillman,  Senator,  246. 
Treaty,  Cuban  Reciprocity,  207  et  seq. 
Treaty,  Portsmouth,  238. 
Treaty,  with  Republic  of  Panama,  225. 
Trusts,  Attitude  Towards,  274  et  seq. 

United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  199. 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  275. 

van  Duzer,  Jonas,  57. 
von  Steinberg,  Baron  Speck,  161. 
Van  Valkenburg,  E.  A.,  348. 
Van  Wyck,  Augustus,  150. 
Vatican  Incident,  312. 
Venezuela,  German  Incident,  210  et  seq. 
Vice    President    (Chapter,  IX),     163  et 
seq. 


Walker,  Admiral,  219. 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphrey,  315". 

WTaringr  Colonel  George  E.,  100. 

Warner,  Mrs.  Langdon,  451. 

Warren,  Herbert,  237. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  195. 

Watkins,  Thomas  H.,  204. 

Welch,  Thomas,  57. 

Western  Federation  of  Miners,  285. 

Wheeler,  Everett  P.,  100. 

Wheeler,  General  "Fighting  Joe",  142. 

White,  Henry,  164. 

White     House,     Roosevelt's     Life      in 

(Chapter  XII),  175. 
White,  Dr.  J.  William,  384. 
Whitman,  Governor,  470. 
Wilcox,  Ansley,  171. 
Willis,  John,  80. 
Wilson,  General  John  M.,  204. 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  379. 
Wingate,  Sir  Reginald,  311. 
Witte,  Sergius,  240. 
Wood,  Leonard,  134,  135,  142,  179,  207, 

418,  463. 

Woodruff,  Timothy  L.,  164. 
Woody,  Tazewell,  80. 
World  War,  Services  in,  459. 
Wright,  Carroll  D.,  201. 
Wright,  Luke  E.,  258. 
Wynne,  Robert  J.,  207. 

Young,  General  S.  M.  B.,  143. 
Zahm,  Father,  401,  407. 


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T  D  fi2A   20     Q  '63                                     General  Library 

